This course introduces students to the exciting world of whole foods nutrition and food as medicine. Students explore the attributes of foods and their properties in order to understand what to favour and to avoid in the presence of various pathological syndromes. Students also learn the role digestion plays in nutrition. Dietary philosophies from major medicinal lineages are discussed, including Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda. This course begins to build the framework and theory of food as treatment. This course is recommended for students in their first year of studies.

This course examines the different aspects of inflammation in acute and chronic diseases, evidence for diet, nutrition and lifestyle therapies and explores nutritional options to “address the root” for common inflammatory conditions.

In this class we will look at different groups of marginalized and vulnerable people and their barriers to accessing nutrition and healthcare as well as how to work with these populations. We will explore possible nutrient deficiencies and their practical solutions, resources within the local and larger community and learn how to create realistic nutrition plans that meet people where they are at and use a holistic approach.

This course explores the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating habits – which are in your scope as a nutritionist – and how to better support your clients and community.

If you have been thinking about going vegan, plant-based, or working with clients that are vegan or plant-based, it is important to know how to meet nutrient needs. With so much conflicting and confusing information out there about how to eat a balanced vegan or plant based diet, it is important to separate fact from fiction. This course is an exploration of  prominent topics and dissenting opinions.

This course surveys essential nutrient needs at each life stage of human development from infancy to adulthood.

By understanding the changing nutritional needs through each season of life, this course focuses on the central questions: How do dietary practices and life changing events impact health and nutrition? What are the downstream ripple effects of this on a person? By examining contributing factors to overnutrition/toxicity and undernutrition/deficiency at each life stage, this course surveys various methods to address nutrient needs unique to each lifestage, to create balance and health at every life stage.

This course augments how you approach nutrition and health from a broader life stage perspective.

Over a five-week period, students develop a greater sense of confidence working alongside athletes of varying levels. Learn to find valid information that suits the needs of your client. Learn to work toward tangible goals with individuals who strive to meet them.

This class covers everything you need to know about establishing a brand and identity in the online space. Students learn how to create valuable content, establish an engaged audience and reach more people with your message.

Both Online and In-Person formats:

Online

Join Chef Heidi Fink for a 14-week Professional Cooking experience from the comfort of your very own kitchen. Over the 14 sessions you will learn the fundamentals of cooking, kitchen safety, knife skills, recipe development, menu development, and more. We will cover the foundations of cooking, expanding to international cuisines, as well as how to cook and develop recipes for allergy-free meals. Throughout the course we will discuss and learn about the history and culture of various cuisines, ethical food issues, organic vs local, wild vs farmed, sustainable agriculture, food allergies and restrictions, cooking and eating fads, and more. Please note that for this virtual offering, grocery lists will be sent out in advance allowing you to participate directly by creating a dish alongside Chef Heidi in each class. As such, a small amount of your time will be required outside of the course hours in preparation of each weeks offering.

In-Person

Join Chef & Herbalist Michelle Quintal for a 14-week Professional Cooking experience. Curriculum is structured to teach important recipes to enhance maximum versatility when preparing meals for future clients. Focus is on a wide-variety of cultural flavour pairings to ensure clean-recipes are of culinary art quality. Syllabus topics include: knife skills, herbal vinegars and oils, main course meals and finishing preparations (sauce, tapenade, pesto) that address a wide variety of health considerations. Baking, nut mylks and basic culinary business skills are also covered. This offering includes two local field trips to learn more about the food justice and sustainability climate in downtown Victoria. The course has a $20/class fee for each cooking class to cover the cost of food supplies. Working in pairs, each student will have a meal to enjoy within each class or to take home.

Class description:

Transform your wisdom into a wellness book that heals, inspires, and empowers. This course blends creativity with strategy, guiding you through intuitive content creation, mindful publishing, and authentic audience connection. Explore the role of AI in writing, develop a soulful brand voice, and craft a book that reflects your vision. Embark on this holistic journey to share your knowledge and elevate your career.

Course objectives:

• Master the essentials of book development, including content creation, audience targeting, manuscript preparation
• Understanding principles of wellness book conceptualization, targeting specific audiences and aligning content with niche standards
• Understanding the role of AI in book writing
• Gain practical knowledge of the publishing process, including editing, manuscript preparation and working with publishers.
• Explore strategies for book marketing, distribution channels and creating a unique brand voice
• Develop a comprehensive wellness book outline with a concept, theme and marketing plan

Class description:

Turn your love for food into a cookbook that inspires and connects. This holistic course guides you through recipe development, testing, and food styling while helping you craft a meaningful culinary narrative. Understand the role of AI in book writing, navigate the publishing process, and develop a strong author voice. By the end, you’ll have a polished cookbook concept, sample recipes, and a marketing plan to bring your vision to life.

Course Objectives:

• Master the essentials of recipe development, recipe testing and food styling.
• Understand how to develop a unique cookbook concept and align content with a targeted audience.
• Gain practical knowledge of the publishing process, including editing, manuscript preparation, and working with publishers.
• Understand the role if AI in book writing
• Explore the strategies for cookbook marketing and creating a unique author voice.
• Develop a comprehensive cookbook proposal including the outline, sample recipes and a marketing plan.

Students learn the basics of herbal medicine and build relationships with a wide range of medicinal plants, learning botanical descriptions, history and medicinal uses, as well as nutritional value and culinary applications. Students also learn how to harvest fresh herbs, formulate medicinal teas, tinctures and oils, and how to apply these medicinally and in cooking. The course includes lectures as well as live cooking and product making demonstrations.

* Please note this course is not recommended for Diploma of Phytotherapy students or Community Herbalist Certificate program graduates due to crossover in course content.

Discover how you can power up your energy, improve your well-being and enrich any role or profession you hold. More than ever, we all need tools to handle stress and change, and to improve our resilience and well-being. Energy management and meditation techniques can increase your capacity, and your ability to skillfully navigate change and whatever life throws your way. In the Lightwork Meditation Energy Management Life Skills course, you’ll learn to guide yourself through a series of step-by-step, practical meditation techniques to use in daily life and work. These techniques can help you to stay calm, clear and empowered no matter what is happening in your life or in the world. The tools easily support any field of study, profession, role or relationship. Replenish and be empowered in this uplifting five-class, online course.

This course touches on a wide range of topics related to kingdom fungi, such as identification, harvesting, history, cultivating medicinal and culinary mushrooms, and myco-remediation techniques. Students gain an understanding of the many uses and benefits of mushrooms.

This course aims to be hands-on, and as interactive, as possible. Students are encouraged (though not required), to head to their local health food store, grocery store, or herbal dispensary to find some mushroom foods and medicines to use in the planned tasting and cooking demonstrations. Additional instructions are sent out one (1) week prior to the start of this class.

Learning Objectives:

Students gain familiarity with:

• Identification
• Safety
• Materia medica and nutrition
• Cultivation
• Culinary and Medicinal preparation
• As well as a wider view of mushrooms’ part in our bodies and the planet

This course introduces students to the world of plant medicine in regards to digestive health. Several herbs and essential oils are covered, and students  explore how to apply them therapeutically to ease common digestive complaints and support the overall digestive process. Students  also learn how to make their own custom digestive tea and essential oil blend to take home.

Join us for this introductory course where you will deepen your understanding of the natural world while gaining insight into the foundations of permaculture.

With a focus on learning nature’s operating system, participants will understand how to apply the principles of nature to growing a garden, running a successful holistic health practice and building better relationships with your clients. Explore how to observe and interact with the land and your life to be able to best create long term, healthy and productive systems that care for the planet, people and future generations to come.

To apply learnings, participants will have an opportunity to create mini Permaculture designs for personal projects of their choosing.

This course is a great fit for Herbalists and Nutritionists who:

•             are interested in creating intentional designs for their land, life and/ or work

•             want to take a more nature based, holistic and ethical approach to their practice

•             are inspired to learn how to start growing their own food and medicine

•             desire to build stronger relationships with the natural world

•             hope to create positive change in their lives and communities

This course will explore the spices from around the world, including their geographical origins, traditional uses, active compounds, botanical profiles, blending science, flavour release methods, and optimal food pairings. Special focus will be on the chemistry of the principal flavour compounds of each spice, the blending science, flavour release mechanisms used in culinary applications and food pairings. You will learn how creativity, nutrition, and science come together in natural harmony to shape bold, well-balanced spice blends.

This course offers a deep introduction to the discipline of integrative nutrition in its contemporary Western context. The course investigates foods and nutrients both scientifically and according to ‘traditional’ understandings, while also considering health, ecology, politics and economics. Students will gain practical skills and understanding toward incorporating nutritional recommendations into their clinical practice.

There are as many dietary traditions around the world as there are cultures. This course explores some of the most significant, extreme and influential cultural food practices and puts them in perspective for modern therapeutic application. This course examines how traditional and contemporary dietary practices around the world have evolved and been influenced by factors such as geography, environment, social structure, and religion. It also looks at how changing agricultural practices have contributed to changes – both positive and negative – in regional eating habits, and how cultural dietary practices are linked to patterns of health and disease.

This course exposes corruption and politics within the global corporate food industry. Discussion topics include food security, GMO foods, the meat industry, and government regulations to name a few. Students gain a basic understanding of key factors contributing to the dominant global economy of food and are able to explain how our apparent abundance of cheap food is made possible through externalities (pollution, water shortages, etc.) subsidies, and inequalities. This course also looks at various food systems designs and farming models, which attempt to address, amend and build new localized food economies. Students consider how food systems and their involvement as eaters affect their lives, their place and the lives and places of others.

This course takes students on an exploratory journey of food and nutrition-based cleansing practices through the ages. By examining well known healing traditions from around the world, we discuss the fundamental health impacts of various practices through the lens of ancient and modern living. Students have the opportunity to apply important aspects of food and nutrition-based cleansing practices personally, to learn from self – assessment of your direct experience. By applying concepts from physiology, anatomy and organ function we discuss best practices for adapting food and nutrition-based cleansing practices to modern times for clients as well as ourselves.

Food Therapy is a branch of Chinese Medicine that uses food as preventative and curative therapy. This course examines traditional Chinese foods and diets, principles and philosophies TCM-based food therapy, and emphasizes the energetic effect of various foods, teas and spices after consumption.

This course surveys the therapeutic properties of some of the most common and nutrient-rich foods. As with plant materia medicas, much emphasis will be placed on food monographs.

An integral part of most natural therapies is nutrition. Since food is a primary source of energy, it has a great potential to influence our health. Nutritional support in pregnancy and lactation involves increasing specific nutrients, health conditions and digestive system changes. This course is an opportunity to explore these needs and ways to support clients in their unique pregnancy and lactation experience. 

This course explores the nutritional benefits and culinary uses of wild plants. Though the course is focused on local wild flora, many of the plants we cover can be found around North America, and the techniques taught can be applied to wild plants around the world.

This course has hands-on learning, as well as discourse surrounding the regulations, sustainability, ethics, safety, and practicalities of harvesting wild plants for personal use, community use, and potential clients.

This course introduces students to early childhood nutrition, from birth to age 5. In a world of nutrient deficiencies, food intolerances, and digestive conditions, this course explores optimal ways to introduce, select, and incorporate healthful foods into the a child’s diet. This course considers both omnivorous and plant-based options and aims to empower each student to support a client’s individual needs. 

This course covers the holistic nutrition industry in Canada, exploring the origins of this unregulated industry and the importance of working within a scope of practice. Further, it seeks to facilitate students in gaining an appreciation of general ethical principles in healthcare, together with reflection on specific ethical and regulatory issues they may face in practice. Attention is paid to understanding professional organizations, ethics and leading with integrity.

(Formerly Intro to Supplements) This course examines dietary supplements including vitamins and minerals. Students examine lifestyle habits and physiology that may cause imbalances and nutrient deficiencies, and learn about potential side effects including supplement-drug-food interactions.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course establishes foundational principles of food-based therapy and includes the discussion of Digestive, Hepatic and Metabolic therapeutics.

NU311 Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics I must either be taken prior or concurrent to Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics II-VI.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course includes the discussion of Respiratory, Dermatological, and Immunological therapeutics.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course includes the discussion of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Endocrinology.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course includes the discussion of Psychiatric, Neurological and Musculoskeletal therapeutics.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course includes the discussion of Men’s Health, Renal System and Cardiovascular System.

In Nutrients and Diet Therapeutics courses, students learn to create customized nutritional plans for patients. Students learn how to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the limitations of nutritional therapeutics within these conditions. The courses draw on the knowledge that students have gained from Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and their clinical experience. This course includes the discussion of Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Oncology and Palliative Care.

This course explores key toxic effects of food production on the ecosystem and human health. Students learn about dominant foods in our global society and their effects on the ecosystem and human health, why and how new food systems and dietary changes can counteract toxic effects of food, and how one might influence behaviour changes towards a more holistic diet for personal, family and community benefit.

Shi Liao is a branch of Chinese Medicine that uses food as preventative and curative therapy. This course examines traditional Chinese foods and diets, Shi Liao principles and philosophies and emphasizes the energetic effect of various foods, teas and spices after consumption.