astronomy

Renee Dufault

Renee Dufault is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Renee Dufault rather than just read about it. In short: Renee Dufault is an American research scientist and whistleblower. She is a former Food and Drug Administration researcher and the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute.

Key takeaways

Renee Dufault belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Renee Dufault to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Renee Dufault from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Renee Dufault is an American research scientist and whistleblower. She is a former Food and Drug Administration researcher and the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute. She published a study about mercury in high fructose corn syrup.

Education Dufault earned her Doctorate of Health Education (D.H.Ed.) degree from A.T. Still University in Missouri, and a B.S. in the Environmental Sciences from the University of California Davis (UCD).

Career Dufault served in the Army and Navy before transferring to the United States Public Health Service. During her federal career, Dufault worked for the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes and the Food and Drug Administration. In 2004, Dufault began researching the mercury cycle on behalf of the FDA, which involved, analyzing a number of food products listing HFCS as either the first or second ingredient on the label. Dufault learned mercury cell caustic soda was used to manufacture lye, which was used to separate corn starch from corn kernels during the production of high-fructose corn syrup. Dufault enlisted the help of several colleagues to test whether high fructose corn syrup or products containing high fructose corn syrup contained trace amounts of mercury. While her research team initially tested only 20 samples, 45% of the samples contained trace amounts of mercury. Dufault then sent additional virgin samples of HFCS to two different laboratories, in order to independently confirm her results. Acting as third parties, the federal and academic laboratories tested and independently verified the presence of low levels of mercury in the HFCS samples and foods containing HFCS. In October 2005, Dufault, and her extramural academic colleagues presented their preliminary findings to the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). At that time, Dufault was asked to halt the investigation. In 2006, Dufault attempted to publish the findings of her research on mercury levels contained within HFCS, but was denied the usage of the federal extramural data. She quit her position in 2008, citing her intention to make her research public, and a belief that the FDA no longer supported her work. Dufault and her collaborators published their findings of mercury in HFCS in 2009. Dufault developed and published a scientific model to explain the side effects of HFCS consumption called "macroepigenetics". This model describes the dietary factors that impact gene behavior in the human body to bring about conditions of autism or ADHD. Dufault also developed a nutritional epigenetics model for autism in 2009 concerning the impact of dietary mercury (Hg) exposure on the metallothionein (MT) gene when children zinc (Zn) deficient. The model was used in a pilot study in 2024. After leaving the FDA in 2008, Dufault founded the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, a non-profit that advocates for food ingredient safety, better food, and nutrition education and research. In 2017, Dufault published the book Unsafe at Any Meal: What the FDA Does Not Want You to Know About the Foods You Eat.

Bibliography Dufault, R. J. (2017). Unsafe at Any Meal: What the FDA Does Not Want You to Know About the Foods You Eat. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780757004360. Dufault, R.J. (2023). Nutritional Epigenetics: Unsafe At Any Meal Study Guide. ISBN 9798392540976.

Select publications Dufault, Renee; Lukiw, Walter J; Crider, Raquel; Schnoll, Roseanne; Wallinga, David; Deth, Richard (2012). "A macroepigenetic approach to identify factors responsible for the autism epidemic in the United States". Clinical Epigenetics. 4 (1) 6. doi:10.1186/1868-7083-4-6. ISSN 1868-7075. PMC 3378453. PMID 22490277. Hoover, E.; Cook, K.; Plain, R.; Sanchez, K.; Waghiyi, V.; Miller, P.; Dufault, R. (2012). "Indigenous peoples of North America: environmental exposures and reproductive justice". Environmental Health Perspectives. 120 (12): 1645–1649. Bibcode:2012EnvHP.120.1645H. doi:10.1289/ehp.1205422 (inactive 20 April 2026). PMC 3548285. PMID 22899635.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2026 (link) Dufault, R.J.; Wolle, M.M.; Kingston, Skip H.M.; Gilbert, Steven G.; Murray, Joseph A. (2021). "Connecting inorganic mercury and lead measurements in blood to dietary sources of exposure that may impact child development". World Journal of Methodology. 11 (4): 144–159. doi:10.5662/wjm.v11.i4.144. PMC 8299913. PMID 34322366.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Renee Dufault

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Renee Dufault claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Renee Dufault before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Renee Dufault ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Renee Dufault

In research: Renee Dufault appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Renee Dufault in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Renee Dufault is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American scientists, American whistleblowers, American women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Renee Dufault outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Renee Dufault in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Renee Dufault means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Renee Dufault out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Renee Dufault in simple terms?

Renee Dufault is an American research scientist and whistleblower. She is a former Food and Drug Administration researcher and the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute.

Why does Renee Dufault matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Renee Dufault?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Renee Dufault.