Positive News For You 2/25/19

Let’s All Eat Right Day celebrates Adelle Davis, an influential nutritionist of the mid-twentieth century, who decried food additives and championed whole, unprocessed foods. These ideas were often seen as eccentric at the time, but are mainstream beliefs today. It was her thought that food played a huge role in health and could prevent disease and illness and help people recover from disease and illness. Beyond this, she thought healthy eating could help heal some of society’s other ills.

She was born Daisie Adelle Davis on February 25, 1904, in Lizton, Indiana. As a child, she did farm work and participated in 4-H, and learned to cook, bake, and can. She studied economics at Purdue University for two years, before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley and earning a bachelor’s degree in household science. She continued training in dietetics at Bellevue Hospital and Fordham Hospital in New York City, and then supervised nutrition at Yonkers Public Schools in New York State and worked as a nutritionist for obstetricians. She returned to California in 1931 and started a private consulting practice in nutrition, which she had until 1958. She also earned a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Southern California.

Davis came to national fame on account of her writing. Her first published work was a pamphlet for a milk company in 1932; she then published two of her own pamphlets, Optimum Health (1935) and You Can Stay Well (1939), followed by a nutrition handbook, Vitality through Planned Nutrition (1942). It was with her “Let’s” books that she reached widespread renown. 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) sold millions of copies. This also clues us as to why the name of today’s holiday begins with “Let’s.”

It was not only with writing that she connected with audiences. She became a lecturer and traveled to college campuses and other places to speak on nutrition. She went beyond the United States and traveled to speak in Latin America and Europe. She also appeared on talk shows and did other interviews. She passed away on May 31, 1974, but her work continues to influence nutritionists and healthy eaters today.