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Article title: the pellagra scare
Date published: september 6, 1909
In this article pellagra was reported to be an endemic disease and notes that it's new to the United states but has been observed in Europe for almost two centuries. The widely accepted theory at this time is a toxin in fermented corn. There were reports of around 1500 cases in a year and people were beginning to stop eating corn.
It was reported that some people argued that corn was not the cause of pellagra because for centuries before them people have had corn as a staple in their diets and pellagra was never reported amongst them. There were even reports of a person who died from the disease that had never ate any corn products. Also the cost of living at that time was high, which made it hard on people having an affordable food being held responsible for pellagra. This lead to conspiracy theories where people refused to believe corn was the problem and that it was someones plan to make them believe so.
It was reported that some people argued that corn was not the cause of pellagra because for centuries before them people have had corn as a staple in their diets and pellagra was never reported amongst them. There were even reports of a person who died from the disease that had never ate any corn products. Also the cost of living at that time was high, which made it hard on people having an affordable food being held responsible for pellagra. This lead to conspiracy theories where people refused to believe corn was the problem and that it was someones plan to make them believe so.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F2081FFB345512738DDDAF0894D1405B898CF1D3