From 1900 until the 1930s, pellagra, a disease later discovered to result from a deficiency of the vitamin niacin, was common among poor cotton farmers in the United States whose diet consisted mostly of corn, the least costly food they could buy. Corn does not contain niacin in usable form. Curiously, during the Depression of the early 1930s, when cotton's price collapsed and cotton farmers’ income declined, the incidence of pellagra among those farmers also declined.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the decline in the incidence of pellagra?

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Correct answer marked below

When growing a cash crop could not generate adequate income, poor farmers in the United States responded by planting their land with vegetables and fruits for their own consumption.

Correct

People whose diets consist largely of corn often suffer from protein deficiency as well as niacin deficiency.

Until the discovery of pellagra's link with niacin, it was widely believed that the disease was an infection that could be transmitted from person to person.

Effective treatment for pellagra became available once its link with niacin was established.

In parts of Mexico, where people subsisted on corn but pellagra was uncommon, corn was typically processed with alkaline substances, which make the niacin in the corn absorbable.

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What this question tests

What it tests

Whether you can explain an apparent contradiction in a way that makes both facts true.

Common trap

Picking an option that explains one side of the paradox while making the other side false.