Adelle Davis

Adelle Davis (February 25, 1904 - May 31, 1974) was an American nutritionist and author whose best-selling consumer books promoted natural foods and biochemically-informed nutrition to a mass audience, and whose reputation became a flashpoint between establishment dietitians who dismissed her as a quack and biochemically-trained defenders, including Ray Peat, who considered the attacks unfounded.

Adelle Davis
Born	February 25, 1904
Died	May 31, 1974
Nationality	American
Education	BS, University of California, Berkeley; MS in biochemistry, University of Southern California (1938)
Occupation	Nutritionist, author
Known for	Best-selling consumer nutrition books; Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit
Notable works	Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954) Let's Get Well (1965) Let's Have Healthy Children (1951)
Website

Early life

Adelle Davis was trained in dietetics and nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, and received an MS in biochemistry from the University of Southern California in 1938.

Education and career

Davis wrote an early nutrition textbook in 1942, followed by four best-selling consumer books praising the value of natural foods and criticizing the standard American diet; her books sold over 10 million copies and shaped mid-20th-century American eating habits. Despite her biochemical training, she was heavily criticized by mainstream dietitians and physicians for recommendations not supported by the scientific literature, some of which caused real harm; a 1971 lawsuit followed a case in which a child given high-dose vitamin A on her recommendation suffered permanently stunted growth, settled by her estate in 1976.

Notable/unique

Davis became a target of organized dismissal by establishment nutrition and dietetics groups, who along with other biochemically trained popular writers on nutrition such as Linus Pauling, Roger J. Williams, and Abram Hoffer were labeled "quacks" by dietitians whose own training was often in home economics rather than biochemistry.

Death

Adelle Davis died on May 31, 1974.

Connection to Ray Peat's Work

Ray Peat repeatedly and explicitly defended Adelle Davis against institutional attempts to discredit her, treating the campaign against her as part of a broader pattern in which the nutrition and dietetics establishment attacked biochemically literate writers whose findings threatened prevailing dogma. When a University of Oregon department source told a colleague of Peat's that he would not be allowed to teach a course because he advocated "Adelle Davis' ideas," Peat responded publicly and pointedly.

The fact is that I have never "taught Adelle Davis' ideas."

— Ray Peat

I have no reason to tolerate the dissemination of misinformation about myself (or about Adelle Davis or Linus Pauling or Rodger Williams), so I am requesting that those statements either be retracted or defended in a public forum.

— Ray Peat

It is odd that they criticize people with training in biochemistry (e.g., Linus Pauling, Adelle Davis, R.J. Williams) as not being qualified to talk about nutrition... Biochemically trained people like Linus Pauling, Roger Williams, Adelle Davis and Abram Hoffer who write about nutrition are called "quacks" by establishment dietitians who may be trained in home economics, and who may not understand, for example, how an iron pill might cause anemia.

— Ray Peat

Peat also cited Davis's own book directly for a factual claim about the severity of heart-muscle calcification, referencing page 171-172 of Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1970 Signet edition) in his discussion of calcium and shock.

Published works

• Let's Have Healthy Children (1951)
• Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (1954)
• Let's Get Well (1965)
• Let's Cook It Right (1947)