About Elizabeth Somer

Elizabeth Somer, M.A., is a registered dietitian who has carved a unique professional niche as one of the few, if not only, dietitians who is well-versed in nutrition research. For more than 25 years, she has keep abreast of the current research, packaging that information into easy-to-read books, magazine articles, lectures, continuing education seminars, and practical news for the media.

Author:
Ms. Somer has written nine books: The 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet (McGraw-Hill, 2006), Age-Proof Your Body (McGraw Hill, 2006), The Food & Mood Cookbook (Owl Books, 2004), The Origin Diet (Owl Books, 2002), Food & Mood (Henry Holt 1995, second edition Owl Books, 1999), Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy (Henry Holt, 1996, second edition Owl Books, 2002), Nutrition for Women (Henry Holt, 1993, second edition Owl Books, 2003), and The Essential Guide to Vitamins and Minerals (HarperCollins 1990, second edition 1995). Ms. Somer also co-authored The Nutrition Desk Reference (McGraw-Hill, 1996), which is in its third edition. 

Award-Winning Writer and Editor:
For the past 25 years Ms. Somer has served first as Editor of the Nutrition Report and now as Editor-in-Chief of Nutrition Alert!, newsletters that abstract the current nutrition research from more than 6,000 journals. She is a Contributing Editor to Shape Magazine, Advisory Board Member to Healing Lifestyles, Nutrition Advisor to Prevention magazine, and has written more than 300 articles in numerous national magazines, including American Health, Better Health and Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light, Cosmopolitan, Eating Well, Fast and Healthy, Fit Pregnancy, First for Women, Fitness, Food & Wine, Healthy Living, Living Fit, Mature Outlook, McCalls, Mens Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Prevention, Real Simple, Redbook, Self, Sesame Street Parents Magazine, Shape, Walking Magazine, Women's Sports and Fitness, and Working Woman. Her regular column appear in MediZine  magazine.

Ms. Somer has won numerous awards and scholarships, including the National Mature Media Merit Award for her article titled “Beat the Clock,” which appeared in Living Fit magazine.

Media Personality, Speaker, and Spokesperson:
Ms. Somer appears frequently on NBC’s Today, monthly on AM Northwest (KATU, Channel 2 in Portland, OR), and regularly on numerous national television shows, including The View, Mauri Povich, CNN, the WB Morning Buzz, and several cable stations. She also was nutritional correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America from 1996 through 1999 and a monthly guest on NBC’s Later Today from 1999 through 2000. Her one-hour PBS special on nutrition and aging aired nationally in 2001.

She has conducted hundreds of national and regional radio talk shows, more than 350 local television interviews, 16 satellite media tours, and 100s of public presentations, workshops, and continuing education seminars on current nutrition research, from women's issues, anti-aging, and the food-mood link to the prevention of disease and vitamin-mineral pharmacology. She is listed with several speaker’s bureaus and has completed numerous media-training courses.

Ms. Somer is quoted monthly in national magazines on topics as diverse as Stone Age versus New Age nutrition, the food-mood link, supplements, nutrition during pregnancy, and weight-control guidelines to commentaries on the latest nutrition headlines, practical tips on how to eat healthfully, and how to prevent aging. She has been featured in several articles including three articles that appeared in Prevention magazine, one on how dietitians get their kids to eat right (March 1995), one on how experts stay fit on limited time (April 1994), and another on how nutrition experts eat well on the road (November 1997). Her books receive high praise and are respected by the general public, the media, and nutrition experts as resources that are accurate, dependable, and filled with useful and practical information.

Ms. Somer is frequently asked to be a spokesperson for national food products and has accepted spokesperson positions with such well-known companies and organizations as Sunkist Oranges, V8 Juice, Campbell Soup, Dole Fruit, Pond’s Skin Care, Orville Reddenbacher, Nature Made Vitamins, the California Prune Board, Post Shredded Wheat, Post Raisin Bran, Post GrapeNuts, 8th Continent Soymilk, Oral B Power Toothbrush, Boston Market restaurants, Fazoli’s restaurants, Planters Nuts, The North American Olive Oil Association, Cream of Wheat, got milk?, and the Milk Moustache Campaign. She also is asked to moderate or participate in media roundtables and professional conferences on numerous nutrition topics.

Educator:
Ms. Somer received her bachelor’s degree in Foods and Nutrition from Oregon State University and her master’s degree in Community Health from Ohio State University. She has completed doctoral work at the University of Oregon, and has taught college-level courses at Ohio State, Western Oregon University, Linfield College in Oregon, and University of California at San Diego’s Extension Program. She currently teaches nutrition at Willamette University in Salem, OR.

Mother, Avid Exerciser, Gardner, and Cook:
Ms. Somer lives in the countryside overlooking Mt. Hood and the Cascade Mountains outside Salem, Oregon. She has two beautiful children. In her spare time, she loves to cook, bicycle, snowshoe, hike, exercise, travel, read, and garden.