Nature of the Rickets-producing Factor in Cereals

Abstract

WE have become used to the idea that rickets is a vitamin deficiency condition, and yet there are several facts which militate strongly against complete acceptance of this hypothesis. The most important consideration is the fact that rickets can be produced experimentally by feeding with excess of cereals. It will be remembered that before the demonstration that rickets could be induced in puppies by a diet devoid of what we know now to be vitamin D, one theory of the etiology of rickets in infants attributed the disease to the well-known excessive carbohydrate or, to be more accurate, cereal) intake of the children.