Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Vitamin D And Provitamin D Content Of Some Varieties Of Utah Wheat, Harold M. Nielsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cereal grains were known to be notably deficient in the anti-rachitic principle even before the discovery of vitamin D. Clinicians had associated a type of rickets of infancy, characterized by an over-weight, flabby, bowlegged condition, with a diet consisting mainly of cereals. Mellanby (1) in 1921 concluded that this type of rickets is induced by overfeeding with carbohydrates. He also showed in the same report, however, that oatmeal, although it contains less carbohydrates than the other grains tested, possesses a special tendency toward rachitogenesis.