Adelle Davis

Adelle Davis (25 February 1904 – 31 May 1974) was an American writer and nutritionist, considered "the most famous nutritionist in the early to mid-20th century." She was an advocate for improved health through better nutrition. She wrote an early textbook on nutrition in 1942, followed by four best-selling books for consumers which praised the value of natural foods and criticized the diet of the average American. Her books sold over 10 million copies and helped shape America's eating habits.

Despite her popularity, she was heavily criticized by her peers for many recommendations she made that were not supported by the scientific literature, some of which were considered dangerous.

Early years and education

Adelle Davis was born on February 25, 1904, on a small farm near Lizton, Indiana. She was the youngest of five daughters of Charles Eugene Davis and Harriette (McBroom) Davis. To help pay for college costs she worked at various jobs, and played tennis in her free time. Berkeley had set up the first department of nutrition in America in 1912.

Career as a nutrition expert After receiving further dietetic training at Bellevue and Fordham Hospitals in New York City from 1927 to 1928, she supervised nutrition for Yonkers Public Schools and consulted as a nutritionist for New York obstetricians. and then took some time off to travel around Europe.

To help her spread nutrition information to the public she took a writing course and began writing pamphlets and books.

Career as nutritionist and author After writing a promotional pamphlet for a milk company in 1932, she wrote two non-published treatises: Optimum Health (1935) and You Can Stay Well (1939). In 1942 Davis wrote a 524-page, forty-one chapter nutrition textbook for Macmillan, Inc., Vitality Through Planned Nutrition. But she received public acclaim with her subsequent books written for the general public: Let's Cook it Right (1947); Let's Have Healthy Children (1951); Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954); and Let's Get Well (1965). By 1974, when she died, her books had sold over 10 million copies.

Davis wrote her consumer books over a 40-year career, revising some in the 1970s. She saw herself as an "interpreter", not merely a researcher. "I think of myself as a newspaper reporter, who goes out to libraries and gathers information from hundreds of journals, which most people can't understand, and I write it so that people can understand." She reviewed scientific literature in the biochemical libraries at U.C.L.A., for instance. Her references for Let's Get Well totaled almost 2,500, many from cases during her nutrition practice, and she was upset when the publisher of Let's Have Healthy Children eliminated the 2,000 references from the 1972 revision, according to author Daniel Yergin.

Her first book, Let's Cook it Right (1947), was an effort to update and improve on the popular guide, Joy of Cooking (1931), by including scientific facts about nutrition. In the book she also criticized obstetricians and pediatricians for being ignorant about nutrition, which leads them to prescribe harmful diets for both mother and child. She said that "the chapter on canned foods will make your hair stand on end".

Her third book was Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954; updated 1970), which was written as a basic primer on nutrition for the layperson. In it she includes numerous documented case histories from her practice and from footnoted medical journals. Another stated that Davis "indulges in amateur diagnosis which is both unconvincing and dangerous ... which cannot be recommended because of its inaccuracies and the over-dramatic manner in which the material is presented."

Let's Get Well (1965) was her final book, in which she tried to convince the reader that before most diseases develop there were likely nutritional deficiencies that people were not aware of. She discussed nutritional therapy for hundreds of ailments, including heart disease, high cholesterol, ulcers, diabetes, and arthritis, often contradicting the dietary advice given by many physicians. The book is documented with over 2,000 footnoted references to studies reported in medical journals and books.

Social concerns about nutrition Davis believed many of America's dietary problems were due to most doctors not being well informed about nutrition. She believed few medical schools offered nutrition courses and physicians had little time to read the hundreds of medical journals published to keep up with new findings.

Physician Robert C. Atkins, who promoted the Atkins diet, said Davis's books had contributed to his own pursuit of nutrition in medicine.

Davis also contributed to, as well as benefiting from, the rise of a nutritional and health-food movement that began in the 1950s, which focused on subjects such as pesticide residues and food additives, During the 1960s and 1970s, her popularity continued to grow, as she was featured in multiple media reports, variously described as an "oracle" by The New York Times and a "high priestess" by Life, and was compared to Ralph Nader, the popular consumer activist, by the Associated Press. Her celebrity was demonstrated by her repeated guest appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as she became the most popular and influential nutritionist in the country.

Although she was very popular with the public in general in the 1970s, none of her books were recommended by any significant nutritional professional society of the time. Independent review of the superficially impressive large number of citations to the scientific literature in her books found that the citations often either misquoted the scientific literature or were contradicted by or unsupported by the proposed citation, and that errors in the book averaged at least one per page. One review noted that only 30 of 170 citations in a sample taken from one chapter accurately supported the assertions in her book.

A nutritionist in a literature review said that her works were "at best a half truth" or led to "ridiculous conclusions".

Much of her advice was inaccurate, and some of it was harmful. For example, "she recommended magnesium as a treatment for epilepsy, potassium chloride for certain patients with kidney disease, and megadoses of vitamins A and D for other conditions." There was a case with a four-year-old who was hospitalized at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. The child was pale and chronically ill because her mother, who was an adherent of Davis's nutrition, was giving her large doses of vitamins A and D plus calcium lactate.

Private life In October 1943, Davis married George Edward Leisey, and adopted his two children, George and Barbara, though she never had children of her own. She divorced George Leisey in 1953 and married a retired accountant and lawyer named Frank Sieglinger in 1960.

Honors and awards 1972, honorary Doctor of Science, Plano University, Texas 1972, Raymond A. Dart Human Potential Award, presented by the Steelworkers of America

Publications

Books on nutrition: Optimum Health (1935) You Can Stay Well (1939) Vitality Through Planned Nutrition (1942) Let's Cook it Right (1947) Let's Have Healthy Children (1951), Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954) ALONG THE BACKROADS OF EUROPE, Nutrition Early RARE Pamphlet Travel, ( late 1950s). Published by N.P. Plus Products. Let's Get Well (1965), You Can Get Well (1975). Published by Benedict Lust Pubns (June 1, 1975). Let's Stay Healthy: A Guide to Lifelong Nutrition, (1981). Published by Harcourt; Subsequent edition (December 1, 1981)

Other publications: Exploring Inner Space: Personal Experiences Under LSD-25 (1961) - published under the pen name Jane Dunlap, describing her experience with LSD.