Exacerbation of rickets and osteomalacia by maize: a study of bone histomorphometry and composition in young baboons

Three groups of young baboons were fed for 16 months on one of three diets. The first group was given a well-tried semisynthetic formula, the second group the same diet save that vitamin D had been omitted, and the third group was given the vitamin D-free diet in which maize replaced the dextrin normally used. Although both groups fed the vitamin D-free diets developed rickets and osteomalacia, the group receiving maize did so far more rapidly and to a much greater degree of severity, as evidenced by clinical, radiological, biochemical, and histological signs. The mechanism by which maize acts remains unclear, but this report serves to emphasize the extremely detrimental effects that might be expected in populations who are deficient in vitamin D and who have predominantly cereal diets.