Adelle Davis (25 February 1904 – 31 May 1974), 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 Adele 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.

The picture that she saw, and which she repeatedly describes, is 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