A must-have course for students serious about clinical herbalism. As an introduction to Functional Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Kyla Helm, MD leads students through an 8-week deep-dive course on the different roles that food has on the health of our body.
Food and Health. Seems simple, but is it…really?
In this 8-week course, we will be exploring FOOD. We will start to peel apart the different roles that food has on the health of our body. When we view food as an energy source, as information to our DNA, and as medicine (rather than something to fill our stomachs,) it will help to open the doors to be able to further explore the results of making wise or poor decisions about food.
We will look at modern agricultural practices and how this effect our food even before we make our first food choice. Organic, Raw, Paleo, Adkins, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Super Foods, Low Fat, Low Carb and the list goes on and on… We will discuss basic tenets that many of these diets have in common, and develop some general lifestyle recommendations to help guide our food choices.
We will examine what the literature is saying about controversial topics like genetically modified foods, High Fructose Corn Syrup versus Sugar, artificial sweeteners, and the link diet has to specific diseases such as ADD/ADHD, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia.
We will look at common micronutrient deficiencies plaguing the US now and their link to various diseases.
You will learn about certain physical findings and simple lab tests that could give us a clue about our nutritional status.
Food has the ability to cause disease or to cure disease. Opening our eyes to the extraordinary effect food can have on our lives will empower us to start the journey towards better health for ourselves and our families.
Clinical Nutrition covers 20 hours of class time. In this 8-week course we will cover:
- Introduction to functional medicine & clinical nutrition
- Macronutrients: carbs, fats, proteins and fiber
- Phytonutrients
- Myths in Nutrition
- Food Pyramid-conventional vs functional
- Basic Tenets of Health Eating (The Big Picture)
- Soil Ecology & Modern Agriculture
- Common Micronutrient Deficiencies
- Medication Induce Micronutrient deficiencies
- The roles of Vitamin D
- The roles of Magnesium
- Sports nutrition
- Osteoporosis
- Water & Other Beneficial Drinks
- Sugar, HFCS and other sweeteners
- Artificial sweeteners and sodas
- GUT dysfunction
- Gluten and gluten related problems (celiac, NCGS)
- GUT-Brain connection
- Candida and SIBO/SIFO
- Autoimmunity & The 4 “A’s” (ADD/ADHD, allergies, autism, asthma)
