On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 00:33:55 GMT, "August Pamplona"
wrote:

The same sort of thing is true, believe it or not, of somehing as
mundane as maize. Corn meal is more nutricious when alkali processed.
Native Americans knew to treat corn meal in this way. Others didn't. The
result was a deficiency of niacin (known as pellagra) among poor folk
who subsisted mainly on maize.

Just curious, what is the primitive way to alkali process corn? I
knew about pellagra, but didn't realize there was a way to avoid it
other than to limit the amount of corn in the diet.

Proton Soup