Carlson Wade (b. 1928 - d. 1993) was an important and well-loved advocate for preventive and therapeutic nutrition. Many of Carlson's books covered the full range of nutrition and health, and many readers got their first information on amino acids, the nutritional aspects of PMS, bee pollen, fats and oils, and vitamins and minerals from his works.

Carlson Wade kept up with the latest research in nutrition so that his books were always up-to-date, but his basic viewpoint did not change: that nutritional deficiencies were the root cause of a great number of diseases and that remedying these deficiencies had both powerful curative and preventive effects. One thing that is fascinating is that Carlson's work was looked on by many as "fringe" or "health nut" stuff; the intimate connection between what we ate and the state of our health was declared not to exist, and claiming that it did exist was derided as quackery.

On a personal level, one of Carlson's publishers recalls, "The thing that comes to mind immediately is his complete professionalism. All we would do was give him subject matter, word count and delivery date, then forget about it, knowing we would get a publishable manuscript on the button. He was a rare bird that way."