The Nutritional Institute

 Courses and workshops that empower 

Ian Craig and Rachel Jesson, both accomplished lecturers, deliver regular educational events at venues in South Africa and in the UK. Invited audiences may include:

• general population, looking to learn more about their own health
• athletes and coaches looking for an edge in performance
• students of nutrition or exercise
• nutrition and exercise practitioners
• corporations

To attend a presentation or to request Ian or Rachel as a speaker at your event, please BOOK HERE

Here are upcoming events:

> LIST OF ALL EVENTS

A fresh way to approach your exercise

Sports nutrition is one of the specialties of the Nutritional Institute. Ian Craig, Simone do Carmo and Rachel Jesson are all ex-high level athletes, and their base passion lies in health. We start with a very strong assumption - that health is an underpinning requirement for athletic performance. You cannot hope to train and perform at your potential if your health is suboptimal, your food choices are under-par, and your lifestyle is stressful and busy. Your body will simply not recover from the exercise sessions you ask it to perform.

It is our passion to help athletes and active individuals, whether recreational or elite, to enjoy a long and healthy sporting career, finding your personal balance point where you nourish your underlying health, which in turn supports your physical performance. If you approach us for consultation support, we will firstly focus on your body-mind health via good food choices, lifestyle considerations, and stress management strategies, where relevant. We'll then turn our focus to your specific sports nutrition requirements, considering your daily nutrient intakes, pre-, during-, and post-exercise nutrition strategies, and your performance needs, all the time working with you as a unique individual. 

Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition

The Nutritional Institute has a sister company, called the Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition (CISN). The focus of that company is to train practitioners within the integrative health strategies of sports nutrition - the first integrative/functional sports nutrition course in the world. It annually hosts 3-module courses live in London (UK) and online, plus a highly energetic natural sports cookery module. There is a lot of free material on the website, including blogs, articles, webinars, and podcasts.

Click here to view the CISN website.

Functional Sports Nutrition magazine

The Functional Sports Nutrition magazine was started in 2010 and is edited by Ian Craig and sub-edited by Simone do Carmo. It is based on the vision of extending 'functional' health-based practices into sport. Each edition includes four 2,000 word, fully referenced articles on various topics, plus a ‘Focus On’ product column and question and answer pieces with elite athletes, coaches and nutrition experts. Topics range from genetic individuality, through system health (nervous, endocrine, immune, digestive, musculoskeletal systems), to healthy sports and recovery drink options and discussions of nutrient timings. Because the human body is so complex, unlike many commercial magazines, we do not repeat topics and each magazine has completely fresh material.

Writers for the magazine are all industry experts, as opposed to journalists with an interest in the area. Additionally, all experts are specifically chosen for their ability to think beyond the standard sports nutrition paradigms and for their specialty areas of interest. Writers come from the fields of nutritional therapy, functional medicine, applied sports nutrition, exercise physiology, strength and conditioning, sports science and psychology, and may be university lecturers and researchers, health practitioners, exercise professionals and food and supplement industry experts.

Click here to view the magazine website, where you can see the latest edition and set up a personal subscription.

 

Clinical consultations tailored to you..

1-on-1 consultations are conducted by Ian Craig and Rachel Jesson - each practitioner has a different focus and style, so read below to ascertain your needs:

Ian Craig

Ian is a Nutritional Therapist and Exercise Physiologist and he offers two clinics per week at Morningside Chiropractic and Sports Injury Clinic in Johannesburg, in addition to Skype consultations for national and international clients. He looks after the nutritional needs of individuals with a broad range of health and fitness backgrounds, ranging from clinical interventions to elite athletes. Here are a few common scenarios:

• - Healthy individuals looking to further optimise their dietary and lifestyle choices for the purposes of long term health and vitality.
  - Sports-minded individuals requiring nutritional guidance before and during competitions like the 94.7 cycle tour, Two Oceans ultra-marathon, Cape Epic, Comrades and Ironman, or games players involved in sports like tennis, rugby, football and cricket.
  - Stressed working people who need to lose some weight and improve their cardiovascular health.
  - People with health imbalances such as adrenal fatigue, thyroid dysfunction, a weakened immune system, digestive complaints, sleep disturbance and female hormone problems.
  - Individuals suffering from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and chronic immune dysfunction - conditions very common in high-achieving individuals.

Consultations are focussed purely on your individual needs and goals, and are based on the integrative body systems approaches of Nutritional Therapy and Functional Sports Nutrition.  

 

 

Click here to book a consultation with Ian

 

Rachel Jesson

Rachel is a health food coach, with the emphasis being on food. She focusses on self-empowerment towards improved food sourcing, food preparation and recipe creation. Here are a few common scenarios:

• - The lay person looking for improved health, who realises that there is more to food quality than what the supermarket can offer, plus more to food preparation than what the extreme diets can offer.
  - The pregnant woman, looking for the best possible nourishment for herself and the best start to life for her unborn child, plus guidance with breast feeding for the new born.
  - Parents with young children, attempting to surf through an ocean of confusing dietary miss-information, from their first solid foods (weaning) right through to eating as an adult does. This includes enticing your children to eat nutrient dense foods daily, that nourish their mind, body and soul.
  - A clinical client from Ian, who is ready to make more radical lifestyle changes in support of their health, including a much closer look at their food.

Consultations are focussed purely on your individual needs and goals, and are based on the fundamentals of real food.

 

Click here to book a consultation with Rachel

 

Our genetic approach

After more than a decade since the human genome was sequenced, genetic science has come on leaps and bounds with regards to the degree in which we understand human individuality of dietary preferences and health traits. For example, some individuals fare extremely well on a low-carb, high-fat banting-style diet, whereas other experience low levels of energy, weight gain, cholesterol problems and general ill health. Others may fare well on a vegan diet, which is generally a very low-fat approach. However, the number of individuals who actually thrive on either of these two extreme approaches (high-fat or vegan) are few and far between. The majority of us perform better on a more moderate approach, but the question is which shade of grey to follow....?

 

 

A Review of Healthy Nutrition 

Few people would dispute the fact that there is a bewildering array of books available on the business of eating, fitness and nutrition, many of them, unfortunately, with (hidden) vested interests in the food industry and singular theories. 

But every now and again a refreshing and ethical book based on sound, proven scientific principles comes onto the market, which is more than just another trendy diet book. Wholesome Nutrition is such a book. In it, nutritional therapist and exercise physiologist Ian Craig and his co-author, health food specialist and sports scientist Rachel Jesson, cover in detail the emotive topics of nutrition and health from a scientific perspective. They neatly unwrap all the jargon and pseudo- mystique, offering sensible, practical, economical everyday dietary approaches in a book that’s not only enjoyable and informative to read, but at the same time accessible to all South Africans who care about optimum health and the business of living life to the full. And most importantly, Wholesome Nutrition, stresses the fact that we are all different, and therefore a one-size-fits-all approach is counter productive to good health.

Contents: About the authors; Acknowledgements; Foreword by Patrick Holford; Individuality; Beyond calories; The facts about fat; The cut on carbs; Powerful protein; Food sensitivities; From soil to plate: a review of farming practices; A review of popular diets; Lifestyle and exercise; Mindful eating; Supplements; Pulling it all together; Recipes; References; Resources; Index

Publication date:  April 2016
ISBN:                   978-1-43230-600-7       
Barcode:             9 781432 306007
Price:                   R250.00
Format:              239 x 168 mm
Extent:               176 pages
Photographs:   15 full-colour food photographs
Text:                   ± 55 000 words
Binding:              Softcover
Imprint:               Struik Lifestyle
Classification:  Health and Diet
BIC code:           VFMD, WBHS
SAPNet Code:  T9.4, T16.2

 

Buy Now

Read the Preface...

SALES POINTS
    •    Provides a common sense, objective look at healthy eating options, written in accessible, laymen’s terminology
    •    Emphasises the importance of tailoring nutrition to the individual’s requirements, because everyone is different
    •    Will appeal to anybody interested in weight management and sensible eating, without having to resort to any questionable diet fashion fads
    •    Includes explanatory charts
    •    30 easy-to-follow recipes
    •    Full-colour food photography

Struik Lifestyle | An imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa
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