Joseph Goldberger, Pellagra, and the American South

By Hunter Wallace

Here’s a link to a great article about the pellagra epidemic in the early 20th century South, Joseph Goldberger’s role in identifying the cause, and how pellagra was wiped out during World War II:

“The first case of pellagra in the United States was reported in 1902.[5] Soon pellagra began to occur in epidemic proportions in states south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers.[6] The pellagra epidemic lasted for nearly four decades. It was estimated that there were 3 million cases and 100,000 deaths due to pellagra during the epidemic.[4] The exact cause of pellagra was not known. The patients felt ostracized and were shunned. The social stigmatization was similar to that of the present day epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.[4] Joseph Goldberger of the US Public Health Service solved the secret of the malady of pellagra. Goldberger’s epic work and the social history of the pellagra epidemic in the United States are reviewed. …

Pellagra was a rural disease among the sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and cotton mill workers of the South. Its occurrence in epidemic proportions was linked to the economic depression of the times and the monoculture of cotton cultivation. Depression meant less money for food and subsistence on an inadequate diet. The cotton monoculture and nonexistent animal husbandry resulted in a lack of locally produced food. Along with poverty, corn was the common denominator among pellagrins in the United States and Europe. Corn had been the staple diet among the natives of Mexico and Central America for several centuries without causing pellagra. Why had corn suddenly become pellagragenic in United States and Europe? The answer to the problem lay in the methodology of corn processing, cooking, and milling.[36] The natives of Mexico and Central America had always soaked the corn in alkali before cooking. The alkali treatment liberates the bound niacin in corn, thereby enhancing the niacin content of the diet to the point of being protective against pellagra. The process of degerming in the preparation of cornmeal became feasible with the development of the Beall degerminator in 1905.[36] The process of degermination reduces the niacin content of corn and could have precipitated the development of pellagra among a vulnerable population.

Public awareness campaigns, agriculture diversification, change of food habits, and food fortification with nicotinic acid were all responsible for the eradication of pellagra in the South.[8] The recommendation of the Food and Nutrition Board regarding the enrichment of bread and flour with thiamine, niacin, and iron was endorsed by the members of the baking and milling industries in 1941.[37] Soon the food fortification program played a crucial role in eliminating pellagra. The consumption of enriched flour and bread ensured that the dietary intake of niacin and thiamine was adequate, thus ensuring the prevention of pellagra and beriberi. Pellagra was truly conquered in the American South during the Second World War.[38] Paradoxically, there was relative prosperity during the war. The economy improved, there were more jobs, and almost everyone had an income. The wartime rationing also made the people conscious of eating high quality food. By 1945, pellagra had become extinct in the South, and the pellagra producing 3-M diet of southerners had become a relic of the past.”

The pellagra epidemic, which was caused by extreme poverty and malnutrition, was one of the lowest points in our history. It reached its climax around the nadir of the Southern economy. In the colonial and antebellum era, the population was much smaller and there was abundant game to supplement a corn-based diet, but much of that had been wiped out in the early 20th century South.

Note: Joseph Goldberger, a Jewish physician from New York, played a key role in establishing that pellagra was caused by poverty and malnutrition. Jonas Salk, the Jewish doctor who developed the polio vaccine, also made a positive contribution to public health.

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

8 Comments

  1. Looks like leprosy in that photo. Good job to Mr Goldberger!

    The 20th Century will be remembered as a disease free golden age, when antibiotics become useless. I’m not looking forward to that future.

  2. Don’t kid yourself that Jonas Salk was in it for the common weal! I did a fair amount of research on it, when his 100th anniversary came around, and found that Salk (like all Jews) was in it for the money, the patent, and the glory. Oh yes, he appeared to be a noble Jew, but there was a reason for it that was not noble at all.

    Here’s just one article I found that helps illuminate the truism: With jews, you lose.

    http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/12/jonas-salk-howard-howe-and-myth-of-how.html

  3. For some odd reason, I can close my eyes and picture Mr. Haney pestering Mr. Douglas over the need for the need of an apparatus that not only seals in the Niacin, but also waxes your car, too.

    Yes, kids, if there’s no profit, there’s no techno.

  4. There’s a genetic skin disease called roseca or rhinophyma that effects Northern Europeans, primarily those of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. It also effects North Germans and Scandinavians to a lesser extent.

    I’ve got it, and only noticed it last Spring. I’m glad it’s not skin cancer. I’ve always spent a lot of time outdoors, in the sunshine, and around the water. We who are of Northern European ancestry are were often described as “ruddy”, well that ruddiness can be roseca/rhinophyma.

    They don’t know what causes it, and the only thing they can figure is that it is genetic.

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