It's 1917 and

1917 and the US is entering World War I.

American boys all over the country are being called up to serve.

And every man registering for the selective service

has to undergo a medical exam, where doctors check

to see if they're physically fit enough to fight.

But in the Midwest, there's a problem.

A huge number of the men in the Midwest

had these enormous lumps on their throats.

You might have heard of them.

They're called goaters.

And the situation was so bad

that the Midwest even got a new nickname.

They called it the goiter belt. The story of what caused it and how scientists

and doctors fixed it is one of the greatest stories in medicine, not just in the US, but across the entire world.

I'm Dolan Thuris and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible and wondrous places.

And today we are going to America's Goiter Belt to explore a public health crisis that plagued the Midwest

and the simple solution that changed the world.

In fact, you probably have the cure in your pantry

right now.

That story, after this. I grew up in the Goyder Belt and growing up I had no idea I was living in the Goyder Belt I don't think I would have taken that kindly to it frankly, but at one time the Goyder

belt covered Minnesota, Michigan, the whole Great Lakes region.

...