Nutrition is a young subject; it has been kicked around like a puppy that cannot take care of itself. Food faddists and crackpots have kicked it pretty cruelly.… They seem to believe that unless food tastes like Socratic hemlock, it cannot build health. Frankly, I often wonder what such persons plan to do with good health in case they acquire it.

About Adelle Davis

Adelle Davis (25 February 1904 – 31 May 1974) was an American writer and nutritionist, considered "the most famous nutritionist in the early to mid-20th century." 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...

More quotations from Adelle Davis

As I see it, every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself.

—Adelle Davis

health

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.

—Adelle Davis

food

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

—Adelle Davis

food

Thousands upon thousands of persons have studied disease. Almost no one has studied health.

—Adelle Davis

health disease study

History

17 Dec 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Nutrition is a young subject; it has been kicked around like a puppy that cannot take care of itself. Food faddists and crackpots have kicked it pretty cruelly. . . . They seem to believe that unless food tastes like Socratic hemlock, it cannot build health. Frankly, I often wonder what such persons plan to do with good health in case they acquire it.