Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame
Inducted 2008“One of the pioneers of the movement toward healthier eating, Adelle Davis, raised many food safety and health issues based on her own research. Her views were not accepted by the scientific community at the time. Now the weight of medical evidence, including former Surgeon General Koops’ Report on Nutrition and Health, has vindicated her views.”
-Patrick Leahy
United States Senator 1998
Adelle Davis, one of America’s best known nutritionists, was born Daisie Adelle Davis and raised on a farm in Lizton, Indiana. She attended Perdue University from 1923 to1925, and received her bachelor’s degree in dietetics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1927. Trained in hospital dietetics at Bellevue and Fordham Hospitals in New York City, Davis served as a nutritionist for the New York City public schools until 1931. After several years of private practice as a consulting nutritionist, she earned her M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Southern California in 1939. She continued to see patients in southern California, many thousands of which were referred to her by physicians.
The Adelle Davis Foundation (adelledavis.org) comments that “she repeatedly stated that the body does best when provided with all of the known nutrients, as well as fresh food sources for obtaining nutrients yet to be discovered by science. Knowing the amounts of nutrients that the body requires under given conditions, one can make educated decisions . . . Without knowing the research, one cannot judge what amounts are necessary to avoid vitamin deficiencies. Deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients can cause illness that is reversed when the nutrients are added to the diet.”
Adelle Davis wrote four bestselling books, starting with Let’s Cook It Right in 1947. Let’s Have Healthy Children (1951), Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954), and Let’s Get Well (1965) would follow, each later revised and updated. She was a popular speaker and frequent guest on television, beginning in 1947 and continuing for over 25 years, including a number of appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Linus Pauling considered Adelle Davis to be “a pioneer in the health movement. She was essentially correct in almost everything she said.” In 1990, Natural Food and Farming magazine wrote, “Today’s research shows that she was indeed ahead of her time.”
