The sad reality is that Americans suffer from massive nutritional deficiencies and our food is primarily to blame. These nutrient deficiencies are showing up in underweight and overweight people alike. Aside from a reduction in nutrient density in our food, we don’t eat enough whole, unprocessed foods and instead have diets rich in refined sugars and starches. And even when we are eating the right foods, our bodies sometimes have trouble digesting and absorbing the necessary nutrients from those foods. Simply put, low nutritional status equals a poorly functioning metabolism.
In this House Call episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the issue of malnutrition and what that means for our overall health. They dive into how they diagnose and treat the most prevalent nutrient and vitamin deficiencies and Dr. Boham shares cases of patients she has treated who have difficulty putting on and maintaining weight.
Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD “Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer” explores the Functional Medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.
In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss:
- How malnutrition can occur in overweight and underweight individuals
- Symptoms and long-term effects of malnutrition
- How our modern food has created mass nutritional deficiencies
- The recommended amount of various nutrients and vitamins is not necessarily the optimal amount
- Diagnosing and treating the most common vitamin and nutritional deficiencies including, Omega-3s, magnesium, and vitamin D
- When malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies make it difficult to gain and keep weight on
We hope you enjoy this conversation!
