{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T05:53:08Z","timestamp":1776750788195,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776729600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    The Chinese translation of \u201ccarbohydrate\u201d has long been a topic of considerable debate in chemistry, biomedicine, and nutrition-related disciplines. This issue is not merely linguistic. In Chinese-language contexts, inconsistency among carbohydrate-related expressions may create ambiguity in nutrition education and public understanding, and may introduce practical challenges for literature retrieval and interdisciplinary collaboration, especially in fields such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), where distinctions among dietary carbohydrates, sugars, and glucose could be crucial. This article traces the historical evolution of the Chinese translation of \u201ccarbohydrate\u201d to clarify its historical trajectory and scientific implications. Historical evidence demonstrates that the term \u201ccarbohydrate\u201d did not appear in dictionaries or chemistry books published prior to 1900. However, at the turn of the 20th century, multiple translations emerged, most of which were influenced by the Japanese term \u201ctansuikabutsu\/\u70ad\u6c34\u5316\u7269.\u201d The earliest recorded Chinese translation appeared in\n                    <jats:italic>Huaxue Yuanliu Lun<\/jats:italic>\n                    . During the early Republic of China, \u201ctanshui huawu\/\u70ad\u6c34\u5316\u7269\u201d became the most commonly used term, which was later revised around 1920 with the addition of a semantic radical to the character \u201ctan.\u201d In 1932, the National Institute for Compilation and Translation introduced the term \u201ctang\/\u91a3,\u201d which gained popularity alongside \u201ctanshui hua(he) wu.\u201d However, \u201ctang\u201d was officially abolished in the mid-to-late 1950s and gradually phased out in subsequent decades. By 1980, \u201ctanshui huahe wu\/\u78b3\u6c34\u5316\u5408\u7269)\u201d and \u201ctang lei\/\u7cd6\u7c7b\u201d were officially established as equivalent translations. Currently, \u201ctang lei\u201d is preferred in some disciplinary standards, although \u201ctanshui huahe wu\u201d remains widely used by convention. By reviewing this history, the present work highlights three key principles for addressing terminological ambiguity in nutrition communication. While this historical narrative is anchored in the Chinese context, the communication risks and mitigation strategies discussed might be relevant to other cross-lingual or cross-disciplinary setting, where everyday dietary language interfaces with technical biomedical terminology.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2026.1827194","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T05:34:18Z","timestamp":1776749658000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["From \u201ccarbohydrate\u201d to standardized Chinese terminology: historical evolution and implications for nutrition communication"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Shu","family":"Zeng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Miao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1724048","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1724048","article-title":"Gonorrhea in China: shaping medical knowledge and transforming public perceptions","volume":"13","author":"Miao","year":"2026","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"247","DOI":"10.1097\/MC9.0000000000000072","article-title":"Diabetes: a transcultural history of a disease concept in the late Qing and republican China","volume":"6","author":"Miao","year":"2023","journal-title":"Chin Med Cult"},{"key":"ref3","volume-title":"Chemical Terminology","year":"2016"},{"key":"ref4","first-page":"321","article-title":"Observations on the application of chemistry to physiology, pathology, and practice","volume":"8","author":"Prout","year":"1831","journal-title":"Lond Med Gaz"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1002\/jlac.18440510103","article-title":"Ueber Pflanzenschleim und Bassorin","volume":"51","author":"Schmidt","year":"1844","journal-title":"Justus Liebigs Ann Chem"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1126\/science.ns-21.528.149","article-title":"The use of the term \u201ccarbohydrates\u201d","author":"Stone","year":"1893","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref7","volume-title":"English and Chinese Dictionary with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation","author":"Lobscheid","year":""},{"key":"ref8","volume-title":"Chemistry, Inorganic and Organic, with Experiments and A Comparison of Equivalent and Molecular Formulae","author":"Bloxam","year":"1867"},{"key":"ref9","volume-title":"Supplement to Principles of Chemistry","author":"Fryer","year":"1875"},{"key":"ref10","volume-title":"On the Origins and Development of Chemistry","author":"Wang","year":"1900"},{"key":"ref11","volume-title":"Chemistry, as Exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God","author":"Fownes","year":"1844"},{"key":"ref12","volume-title":"The Latest Chemistry Textbook for Middle Schools","author":"Steele","year":"1903"},{"key":"ref13","volume-title":"Popular Chemistry","author":"Steele","year":"1897"},{"key":"ref14","volume-title":"A Comparative Table of Chinese and Western Chemical Materials","year":"1884"},{"key":"ref15","volume-title":"The Latest General Chemistry Textbook","author":"Tokuhira","year":"1904"},{"key":"ref16","volume-title":"The Latest Chemistry Textbook","author":"Wang","year":"1906"},{"key":"ref17","volume-title":"New Chemistry Textbook","author":"Du","year":"1905"},{"key":"ref18","volume-title":"The Latest Chemistry Textbook","author":"He","year":"1907"},{"key":"ref19","volume-title":"Deutsch-Englisch-Chinesisches Fachw\u00f6rterbuch","author":"Wilhelm","year":"1911"},{"key":"ref20","volume-title":"An English and Chinese Standard Dictionary","author":"Yen","year":"1908"},{"key":"ref21","volume-title":"The Republic\u2019s New Chemistry Textbook","author":"Wang","year":"1913"},{"key":"ref22","volume-title":"Annotated English-Chinese Chemical Vocabulary","author":"Yun","year":"1920"},{"key":"ref23","first-page":"165","article-title":"The evolution of element names in chemistry textbooks during the late Qing and early republican periods: a study on the establishment of chemical element nomenclature (part I)","volume":"24","author":"He","year":"2005","journal-title":"Stud Hist Nat Sci"},{"key":"ref24","volume-title":"Newly Compiled Chemistry Textbook for Junior Middle Schools","author":"Zheng","year":"1928"},{"key":"ref25","volume-title":"Principles of Chemical Nomenclature","year":"1933"},{"key":"ref26","volume-title":"Principles of Chemical Nomenclature","year":"1945"},{"key":"ref27","first-page":"70","article-title":"Notice on several issues regarding the standardization of chemical terms","volume":"1","year":"1957","journal-title":"Chem Bull"},{"key":"ref28","volume-title":"Principles of Organic Chemistry Nomenclature","year":"1983"},{"key":"ref29","volume-title":"Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry","author":"Xing","year":"1965"},{"key":"ref30","volume-title":"Principles of Organic Compound Nomenclature","year":"2018"},{"key":"ref31","volume-title":"Balanced Nutrition: Healthy Eating is not About \u201cCutting Sugar and Eliminating Carbohydrates\u201d","author":"Fan","year":"2025"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Nutrition"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fnut.2026.1827194\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T05:34:22Z","timestamp":1776749662000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fnut.2026.1827194\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]]},"references-count":31,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fnut.2026.1827194"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fnut.2026.1827194","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-861X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-861X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]]},"article-number":"1827194"}}