Ancel Keys, a pioneer in public health best known for identifying the connection between a cholesterol-rich diet and heart disease, has died.

Keys died on Nov. 20, age 100, according to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he founded the school's Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and conducted epidemiological research on health and nutrition.

During World War II, Keys was contacted by the U.S. War Department and asked to recommend nonperishable foods that soldiers could easily carry.

Keys and his staff went to a Minneapolis market where they picked out hard biscuits, dry sausage, chocolate bars and hard candy. The Army dubbed the packet the K-ration, after Keys.

After the war, his research into starvation helped guide recovery efforts for starving European populations.

His curiosity about heart disease, which was fast becoming an epidemic, produced findings that people who ate cholesterol-rich foods suffered clogged arteries. His wife, Margaret, subsequently wrote a book promoting the Mediterranean diet.

He is survived by his wife, son Henry and daughter Carrie D'Andrea.