In medical school, students learn very little about nutrition. In fact, I recall that my class received only one three-hour lecture on the subject during our entire four years of medical school.

And those three hours were spent reviewing the history of some nutritional diseases, including scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and beriberi (vitamin B1 deficiency).

But we were told that in modern times such nutritional deficiencies only occur in third-world countries because of a lack of food. We were also taught that people did not need to supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals because our food supply provided all the nutrients that we need.

After studying holistic medicine for more than 25 years and testing thousands of patients’ nutritional status, I can assure you what I was taught in medical school was wrong.

Unfortunately, medical schools are still teaching the same false information about nutritional diseases. I know this because medical students who do rotations with me at my practice keep me informed about what they are learning.

With regard to teaching about nutritional medicine, nothing much has changed over the last few decades.