NUTRITIONAL DISEASES IN THE UNITED STATES

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Abstract
During the past few years, attention has been increasingly focused on the problem of the recognition and treatment of nutritional diseases in this country. Ten years ago it was thought that we needed to concern ourselves only with rickets, pellagra and a little scurvy. Today it is recognized that all of the known nutritional diseases probably exist to some extent in the United States. Those that appear to be of most importance are anemia, due to iron or cobalt deficiency; nutritional edema, due to protein deficiency; hyperkerataosis and night blindness, due to vitamin A deficiency; beriberi and peripheral neuritis, due to thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, frequently secondary to such conditions as alcoholism, pregnancy and diabetes; lip lesions, seborrhea and keratitis, due to riboflavin deficiency; pellagra or encephalopathy, due to nicotinic acid deficiency; swollen bleeding gums, skin and subperiosteal hemorrhages, due to ascorbic acid deficiency; rickets and osteomalacia, due to