Nutritionist and writer, born in Lizton, Indiana, USA. She studied biochemistry at the University of California Medical School, and continued her training in dietetics at hospitals in New York City, then settled in California to work as a consulting nutritionist, planning diets for thousands of individuals suffering from various diseases and ailments. In 1954 she published Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit which quickly gained a devoted following for her emphasis on a proper diet as the crux of both emotional and physical well-being. What particularly distinguished this and her subsequent books from most popular books on food (in addition to her footnotes and citations of scientific studies) was her claim that one's diet, especially one rich in vitamins and minerals, could actually prevent or cure diseases. For this she was often criticized and even derided by the medical establishment. She died not long before her broad views, if not all her details, began to be accepted by many in the fields of medicine and health.
Daisie Adelle Davis (1904-1974), popularly known as Adelle Davis, was an American pioneer in the fledgling field of nutrition during the mid-20th century. She was an outspoken advocate of the superior value of whole unprocessed foods, the dangers of food additives, and the dominant role that all nutrients play in maintaining health, preventing disease, and restoring health after the onset of disease:
"Research shows that diseases of almost every variety can be produced by an under-supply of various combinations of nutrients...
Davis is best known as the author of a series of educational books published in the United States between 1947 and 1965. One of her books, Let's Have Healthy Children (Signet 1981, revised edition) states that Davis prepared individual diets for more than 20,000 people who came to her or were referred to her by physicians during her years as a consultant. After citing US Department of Agriculture statistics about tens of millions of people in the United States suffering from afflictions such as arthritis, allergies, heart disease, and cancer, she stated, "This is what's happening to us, to America, because there is a $125 billion food industry who cares nothing about health".
Some members of the scientific and medical communities criticized and discredited her published works during her lifetime, but ongoing medical and nutritional research has corroborated much of her nutritional guidelines of yesteryear, and brought her a measure of posthumous acclaim.
Background and education
Adelle was born to Charles and Harriette Davis in the farmlands of central Indiana, USA, on February 25, 1904.
From 1931 through 1938, Davis was a consulting nutritionist in Oakland and Los Angeles, California, did postgraduate work at Columbia University and the University of California at Los Angeles, and received her Master of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California.
In 1974 Adelle Davis died of bone cancer.
Published works
In 1935 Stationers' Hall of London, England published Adelle's earliest writing, Optimum Health, and in 1939 published her second, You Can Stay Well. In 1942 The Macmillan Company published the most assertive of Davis's works of the period, Vitality Through Planned Nutrition, and subsequently re-published it twice (once as revised) in the following years.
Davis's popularity in the United States began with the release of the first in her series of "Let's" titles, Let's Cook it Right, published in 1947. In 1951 Let's Have Healthy Children became the second, followed in 1954 by Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit, and in 1965, the series ended with the final book, Let's Get Well. In some of these works Davis included numerous accounts of the dietary recommendations she had made during consultations, and the results that were obtained by those who followed her advice.
Davis also wrote (under the pen name Jane Dunlap) a classic of psychedelic literature, Exploring Inner Space: Personal Experiences Under LSD-25, which Harcourt also published in 1961.
Controversy
An article in Time magazine (December 18, 1972) characterized Davis, whose books had sold about 7 million copies by that time, as "the high priestess of a new nutrition religion, [who] preaches a gospel that many scientists and academicians find heretical", and stated that "millions regard her as an oracle where eating is concerned". Says he: 'Any physician or dietitian will find the book larded with inaccuracies, misquotation and unsubstantiated statements.'"
In 1978 the Journal of the American Medical Association published a letter written by Charles V. It relates the following account about an infant named Ryan Pitzer:
"A 2-month-old 4.8-kg boy had 'colic.' The mother, following directions in a popular health book [Journal footnote: Davis A: Let's Have Healthy Children, ed 3.
On page 242 of Let's Have Healthy Children, Davis had made the following statement:
"In a study of 653 babies, every infant with colic had low blood potassium. 'Improvement was dramatic,' and the colic disappeared immediately, when physicians gave 500 to 1,000 milligrams of potassium chloride intravenously or 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams by mouth. These doctors found that most babies needed 3,000 milligrams of potassium chloride (2/3 teaspoon) before colic was corrected.
According to Stephen Barrett, M.D., "Davis's recommendation of potassium for colic was based on misinterpretation of a... The article noted that although potassium might improve these symptoms, giving it to a dehydrated infant could cause cardiac arrest [Barrett footnote: Potassium metabolism in gastroenteritis. (This is what killed Ryan Pitzer.) The article had nothing whatsoever to do with colic and did not state that 'most babies needed 3,000 milligrams of potassium chloride' to recover.
The parents of Ryan Pitzer filed a lawsuit, and settled out of court for a reported $160,000, which was paid by Adelle Davis's estate, the book's publisher, and the manufacturer of the potassium product.
Commendations
"Adelle Davis was a pioneer in the health movement," according to Dr. Linus Pauling, recipient of two Nobel Prizes and author of several books on vitamin C.
Thus began a 1990 article in Natural Food and Farming magazine which examined Adelle Davis's teachings in the light of more recent medical research.
In support of consumers who raise questions about the safety of food in the United States, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry at the time, included the following statement in a press release in 1998:
"One of the pioneers of the movement toward healthier eating — Adelle Davis — raised many food safety and health issues based on her own research.
On January 10, 2000, the online magazine Insight on The News presented the results of a reader survey in which hundreds of thousands of people responded.
Adelle Davis Foundation
The Adelle Davis Foundation, whose mission is to "support a program of education and developmental activities relative to the field of nutrition", is located in Santa Barbara, California, and is represented in the online community. In the spring of 2006, the president of the foundation stated that they would like to re-publish Davis's books in the near future.
User Comments Add a comment…