Wise Traditions Nutrition Certificate Courses

WISE 101: Introduction to the Principles of Healthy Traditional Diets

This course provides an introduction to traditional diets through the research of Weston A. Price DDS (1870-1948). Dr. Price traveled to isolated parts of the world during the 1930s to study the health of populations untouched by western civilization. His discoveries and conclusions provide the nutritional keys not only to beautiful, straight and cavity-free teeth but also to physical beauty, strong constitutions, disease resistance, mental stability, easy reproduction and overall optimum health. Students will learn key differences between traditional and modern diets, the dangers of processed, packaged and fast foods, and why traditional peoples have always valued diets high in fat and cholesterol. They will learn why eggs, organ meats, shellfish, cultured foods and raw dairy products have long been revered as “sacred,” and why grains, beans and seeds require soaking, fermenting and other traditional preparations to confer health benefits. Finally, students will develop their critical thinking skills as they consider the modern “health food” movement and the forms of malnutrition likely to result from today’s politically correct and fashionable, low fat, high-soy, plant-based and vegetarian diets.

WISE 102: Fats, Oils, Cholesterol, and Fat Soluble Vitamins

This course provides an in-depth look at the fats, oils, and cholesterol as well as the fat-soluble vitamins that Dr. Weston A. Price found abundant in the diets of traditional peoples around the world.  Students will learn key differences between the traditional animal and vegetable fats and oils that have nourished people well for thousands of years and the industrially processed, refined and/or partially hydrogenated oils, margarines and spreads that are fueling today’s epidemic of chronic disease.  They will learn the pros and cons of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fats; their diverse roles in the body; the vital role of cholesterol; the proper handling of fats and oils; and our need for optimum levels and right ratios of vitamins A, D, and K. Students will also develop their critical thinking skills as they consider the fallacies of the “lipid hypothesis” and the misinterpretation, misappropriation and corruption of scientific research.  Finally, they will gain insights into the ways politics, marketing and money have demonized fat, cholesterol and animal products and sanctified today’s fashionable low-fat, high-carb and plant-based diet plans.

WISE 103: Myths and Truths About Vegetarian Diets

This course provides an in-depth look at the myth that vegetarian and vegan diets are the solution to personal and planetary health. Students will learn key nutritional differences between omnivorous and plant-based diets and the reasons why Dr. Weston A. Price was not able to find a single healthy culture eating a plant-based diet. They will also begin to develop the critical thinking skills needed to examine misinterpreted, misappropriated and corrupted scientific research and to understand the powerful role of marketing in influencing public ideas of what is healthy. Finally students will discover why plant-based diets are not the solution to world hunger, global warming or a just, sustainable world.

WISE 104: Dirty Little Secrets About the Food Processing Industry

This course exposes the "dirty little secrets" of modern, industrial food processing methods and the myriad ways politics, marketing and money have changed the American diet, lifestyle and landscape. Students will learn what's really wrong with packaged, processed and fast foods, the perils of discarding our ancient wise food traditions, and how America's addiction to convenient and cheap edibles is destroying personal and planetary health. They will gain insights into how government policies have built a SAD and artificially cheap diet on a foundation of wheat, corn and soy, how Big Agra has co-opted "organic," why low-fat, high-carb, plant-based diets have gone mainstream and why locavorism must be wave of the future.

WISE 105: The History, Science and Politics of Real Milk

This course covers the history, science and politics of "real milk ", i.e. raw, whole, unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk from pastured cows. Students will learn about the nutritional quality of real milk, its health benefits and curative properties, built in resistance to pathogens, and long-standing safety record, and how it fundamentally differs from factory-farmed milk. Issues of lactose intolerance, milk allergies, the A1/A2 milk controversy and milk substitutes will also be considered Most importantly, students will learn how raw milk has become a lightning rod for food freedom, and stands at the center of a larger battle between the industrial food system and the local food movement.

WISE 106: Traditional Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy & Early Childhood (Release Date TBA)*