Customer Reviews

LET'S HAVE HEALTHY CHILDREN by Adelle Davis, REVISED AND UPDATED "America's most famous food expert gives the vital nutritional do's and don'ts for expectant mothers, babies, and growing children."

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After the birth of my first child I was pretty clueless about health and nutrition. my baby developed a very high fever at 6 months of 106 suddenly and the hospital was stumped as to the cause and could only recommended baby aspirin The baby aspirin only temporarily brought the fever down. It happened twice and scared me to death each time.

A Doctor I was referred to recommended the Adelle Davis books and this one in particular. I read the book and it really opened my eyes and to what was happening with my baby and why. I felt that I could handle the situation and didn't feel helpless anymore. Knowledge is power.

I started making up the baby formula and my daughter became well and it that high fever never happened again I learned the commercial baby formula I had been using wasn't giving her enough nutrition.

I continued follow Adelles wonderful advice and my daughter breezed through her childhood with little illness and if she get something, like the time she got chickenpox, when following Adelle's nutritional advice, my daughter got well within hours, not days.

I continued to use this book with my other 3 children and my kids where always way healthier than other children in their schools.

Traditional medical doctors over subscribe medication and antibiotics so much that we now have resistant strains of diseases. They don't always look for the nutritional causes or offer the simple inexpensive solutions that put the body back in balance. Children routinely get ear infections, colds and flu. My kids didn't and their children now don't.

Adelle's research and books inspired me to grow my own fresh organic veggies, bake nutritious breads and desserts and help others to do the same. I owned a health food store and an organic Food buying club. I have helped thousands of men women and children live healthier lives. Adelle Davis was my inspiration.

This was my bible when my four children were growing up. They are now healthy adults with children of their own and copies of their own. One very important gift this book gave me was the use of brewer's yeast for morning sickness. When carrying my second child I was still having terrible morning sickness in my 7th month. A friend suggested this book. It stopped it immediately. I believe Parent's Magazine has even recommended this book.

I believe my beautiful daughter would not be on this earth had I not read this book.

Newly married, my new Ob/Gyn doctor told me I could never have children because of a congenital deformity which no surgery could correct. My husband and I decided to try anyway. My mother had read Adele Davis's Let's Get Well and was amazing her doctors after her open-heart surgery (in 1966) and upon hearing we were going to try to get pregnant anyway, she sent me Let's Have Healthy Children. I followed the pre-pregnancy diet to the letter. A year later I became pregnant.

My daughter was born at 31 weeks, weighed 2.15 oz and had apgars of 8 and 8. A vital and healthy preemie- a miracle. She was so strong, and the doctors did not realize how strong, that the "protocol" of inserting a breathing tube into preemies' lungs, burst her lungs (She breathed out as the machine forced air in). Despite nearly dying from the doctor's mistake, she lived. When I finally was able to bring her home, I again followed this book with fervor. My daughter thrived and never looked back. Today she is a newly licensed psychologist with degrees from prestigious universities. When she married and became pregnant, I looked for an updated version of this book but found nothing. She used my copy and we checked on the internet for updated dosages. We have a health, energetic three year old in the Adele Davis tradition. I value this book so much; it is one of my "pack in case of hurricane" books.

Adele Davis is the mother of the modern health movement although many people do not know her name. Her books may be somewhat dated now, but she caused a quiet revolution with her focus on nutrition. Much nutritional education still needs to be done in schools and universities and especially medical schools, but progress is being made.

I am now 60 years old, but both of my two children were Adelle Davis children. They are beautiful and very healthy. Proceed with caution, because too much of a good thing is not always good. I would recommend that people become more knowledgeable regarding good nutrition. Always apply the best nutrition possible through fresh, natural wholesome foods, then if and when a situation pops up, then, and only then, use supplements. I would still recommend only giving half of the Adelle Davis recommendation, and when the issue has cleared up, stop the supplement. We do not need it every day of our life, only when our systems go under attack. Only offer foods to your children that the good Lord made and are untouched by manufactures; this means nothing out of a jar, a box, or can. Fresh is better than frozen (frozen foods increase acid state in body). Never microwave foods....vitamins and minerals are destroyed. Take the time to steam fresh vegetables, meats, fruits, etc. and blend with milk or orange juice.

I first came across Adelle Davis in the mid 1980s when I became interested in nutrition. I read her books avidly and put into practice many of her suggestions for cooking techniques and vitamin supplements. I was obsessed with my daily protein intake and learned to count the grams of protein I consumed each day. I took megadoses of vitamins in an attempt to cure minor ailments, including niacin supplements when I developed an intestinal bug -- this led to flushed, tingling skin which is one of the side-effects of an overdose of niacin. I took megadoses of Vitamin C whenever I was coming down with a cold -- this in itself caused stomach upset -- and megadoses of Vitamin A to treat acne. It didn't improve my skin and at a time when I was struggling to get by on a very low income I was spending a lot of money on supplements. Several years after I'd stopped taking Vitamin A I happened to separately meet two people who had themselves followed this advice to treat acne and had ended up with permanent liver damage (and permanently yellowed skin) as a result. With a sense of horror I realised how close I had come to seriously harming myself by self-dosing with vitamins which, when taken in megadoses, can become dangerous drugs.

I have since read more about the work of Adelle Davis. Several critics have pointed out that the references she supplies in her book often don't back up in claims -- in many cases she refers to published scientific literature that actually contradicts the claims she makes in her books. There are two well-known cases in which parents received out-of-court payments from Davis's estate: a 2-month-old baby died after his mother, following advice given in one of Davis's books, overdosed him with potassium chloride to treat "colic", and a young girl's growth was permanently stunted because her parents gave her megadoses of vitamins to keep her "healthy".

LIke most writers of her day, Davis was oblivious to the concept of "diseases of nutritional extravagance" such as heart disease, which are common in Western cultures where meat and dairy products form a large part of the diet. but rare in those societies which eat a plant-based diet. As a result she overstressed the need for protein, when in fact protein deficiency is virtually unknown where calorie intake is sufficient. Dairy products (which nature designed to support the rapid growth of baby cows) are unnecessary for humans (the only species to continue drinking milk, let alone the milk of another species, after the age of weaning). Adelle Davis claimed that she never knew anyone who drank a quart of milk a day to develop cancer -- but she had to stop making this claim after she herself developed cancer, from which she died at the age of 70.

If you are interested in nutrition and at all inclined to follow Davis's advice, please use extreme care and consult doctor or a qualified nutritionist first. At the very least, make sure you also read more up-to-date works on the latest discoveries in the field of nutrition, such as books by T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Essylstyn, Dean Ornish or John McDougall.