Red madness by gail jarrow7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() She knows exactly what caused pellagra, of course, but she allows the science to unfold exactly as it would have, without stepping in to say, basically, "People thought this, wasn't that dumb?" A totally uninformed reader would know no more about the disease while reading than had already been uncovered at that point in the chronology. Jarrow is very careful here, avoiding tilting her hand any earlier than necessary. Pellagra is the reason for our enriched bread, which is why a disease that was so common as little as 80 years ago is virtually unheard of in modern America. Hence why it was so common in the South, a region that still loves its cornmeal. Mold? Bacteria? Poor hygiene? Actually, pellagra is a disease of malnutrition, caused by a diet that's heavy on corn products and fat but has little protein and vegetables. And yet, as recently as a hundred years ago, pellagra was dangerously widespread, the fourth leading cause of death in some Southern states, and there was no medical consensus of how to cure the disease, how to treat it, or even what caused it. ![]() Are you familiar with pellagra? Unless you're a history buff (or, maybe, a fan of Good Eats, which mentioned it in passing on one episode) you've probably never even heard of it before. ![]()
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