Adelle Davis was an American writer and nutritionist, considered "the most famous nutritionist in the early to mid-20th century."150  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.

Early Years And Education

Adelle Davis was born on February 25, 1904, on a small-town farm near Lizton, Indiana. She was the youngest of five daughters of Charles Eugene Davis and Harriette (McBroom) Davis. When she was ten days old, her mother was paralyzed from a stroke and died seventeen months later. Because bottle feeding was then unknown, Davis had to be fed with an eye-dropper, and later felt her interest in nutrition was due to the deprivation of oral feeding during her infancy. Early in her career she treated every patient as if they were herself. "Every patient was me, and I was mother, trying to get him healthy. I spent all my time making up for the mother I didn't have."

She was raised with her sisters on the family's farm by her father and an elderly aunt, where among her duties were pitching hay, plowing corn, and milking cows. She rode seven miles in a horse and buggy to attend school, where she graduated in 1923 with thirteen other students. From age ten to eighteen, she was also an active member of the 4-H Club, an organization which helped youths reach their fullest potential. During her time with the club she won numerous ribbons for her breads, canned fruits and vegetables, which she had entered at state and county fairs.

She enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana where she stayed from 1923 to 1925, majoring in home economics. To help pay for college costs she worked at various jobs, and played tennis in her free time. During the summers she stayed active with the 4-H Club as a club leader. After two years at Purdue she transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated in 1927 with a degree in dietetics. Berkeley had set up the first department of nutrition in America in 1912.

Personal 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.

In 1973 she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and later died of the same disease in 1974 in her home at the age of seventy.[5] She attributed her getting cancer to her early years in college, where she ate junk food before learning about its negative effects on health, and to a number of X-rays she underwent. Before her death she stated, "In my opinion there is no question whatsoever that the terrific amount of cancer we have now is related to the inadequacies of our American diet."

Adelle Davis’s Nutritional Philosophy Expert

Adelle lived and wrote in the post-World War II era, which was enthralled with freedom of choice. The motto of the Health Food Movement, if indeed one of the many could be chosen, was “Freedom of Choice in Nutrition.” Blind freedom is “not freedom, but license”, and Adelle was determined that her clients and readers would not be in the dark about the scientific basis of nutritional education.

Adelle Davis gives us the kernel of the research in nutrition, based on experiments and scientific writings that she read voluminously and thoroughly. She received her Masters Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California, and practiced professional nutritional counseling for 35 years, applying to thousands of cases, the solid scientific research she had made herself thoroughly responsible for.

Adelle Davis noted that the body does best when all of the known nutrients have been available, as well as fresh food sources for obtaining nutrients yet to be discovered by science. She writes so often, “When the diet is made adequate…” The key to this philosophy is knowing the amounts of nutrients that the body requires under given conditions, one can make educated decisions about what substances to include in the diet. This is true freedom of choice in nutrition. Without knowing the research, one cannot judge what amounts are necessary to avoid vitamin deficiencies.

The crux of her findings boil down to this: deficiencies in vitamins, mineral elements, or other nutrients can cause illness that is reversed when the nutrients are added to the diet in an educated way, and “when the diet is made adequate” in all other respects.

Honors and Awards

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