 McCollum wrote in his 1918 textbook that lacto vegetarianism is, "when the diet is properly planned, the most highly satisfactory plan which can be adopted in the nutrition of man".McCollum's ancestors immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1763.McCollum was born in 1879 to Cornelius Armstrong McCollum and Martha Catherine Kidwell McCollum on a farm from Redfield, Kansas, usually reported to have been Fort Scott, Kansas, which was away.