caution: check your source

my fitnet guy mentioned that adelle davis put out an awful lot of erroneous information, which led to at least one child's death.

her books Let's Have Healthy Children and Let's Eat Right To Keep Fit were both filled with incorrect information. certainly, i think it's important for people to try to eat healthily, but the assertions of an off-the-shelf book need to be backed up from other sources.

there are numerous web sites which detail the damage caused by her books, but one of the best is Quackwatch -- http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/davis.html . the following illustrates some of the damage she caused:

In 1971, a 4-year-old victim of Davis's advice was hospitalized at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. The child appeared pale and chronically ill. She was having diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and loss of hair. Her liver and spleen were enlarged, and other signs suggested she had a brain tumor. Her mother, "a food faddist who read Adelle Davis religiously," had been giving her large doses of vitamins A and D plus calcium lactate.

Little Eliza Young was not so fortunate. During her first year of life she was given "generous amounts" of vitamin A as recommended in Let's Have Healthy Children. As a result, according to the suit filed in 1971 against Davis and her publisher, Eliza's growth was permanently stunted.

Two-month-old Ryan Pitzer was even less fortunate. According to the suit filed by his parents, Ryan was killed in 1978 by the administration of potassium chloride for colic as suggested in the same book.

In 1982, pediatricians at the University of California School of Medicine in Los Angeles reported a case of near-fatal overdose in a 3-week-old boy who had been given potassium for colic. In this case, the potassium was contained in a salt-substitute added to an acidophilus solution as recommended in another paragraph of the colic discussion. After four days, the infant became lethargic and irritable and had an episode of gagging after which he became limp and stopped breathing. The parents began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and immediately took him to an emergency room, where he was able to breath spontaneously. His potassium levels were extremely high but responded promptly to treatment.

In 2005, an 11-month-old boy who was raised on barley water and goats milk as recommended in Let's Have Healthy Children wound up with severe anemia due to vitamin deficiency. The treating physicians said he was lucky to escape brain damage.

when it comes to your children's health, check and double-check your information.