South Plains Nurse Practitioners Association

Food as Medicine Certification: Clinical Applications for Healthcare Professionals

CE Information
21.0 CE credits
Completion Time
21 hours, 29 minutes
Available Until
December 31, 2025
Posted By
PESI
PESI PESI
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Overview

Clinical Topics
Nutrition

Transform lives - and your practice - by unlocking the healing power of food.

This dynamic, expert-led certification course will give you everything you need to confidently help clients use nutrition to prevent and reverse chronic illness. You’ll discover the latest science behind food-based interventions and walk away with practical, proven strategies you can use right away.

Through engaging video lessons, real-world case studies, and step-by-step guidance, you’ll learn to:

  • Develop personalized nutrition plans to tackle inflammation, digestive issues, mood disorders, and more
  • Address the root causes of disease, not just symptoms
  • Translate cutting-edge research into simple recommendations clients can actually follow
  • Empower lasting change that improves health and quality of life

Become a Certified Functional Nutrition Informed Professional (CFNIP) at no additional cost to you! Whether you’re a clinician, dietitian, therapist, or health coach, this certification will elevate your impact and your career.

Join thousands of professionals who have already discovered how food can be the most powerful medicine of all. Enroll today and start making a bigger difference tomorrow.

Learning Objectives

Principles to Maximize Your Patient's Nutrition
  • Macros and micros
    • What's the skinny on fats?
    • To carb or not to carb?
  • Causes of oxidative stress & inflammation
  • Organics - when & why

Metabolism and Weight
  • Physical activity recommendations
  • BMI is outdated…or is it?
  • Implications for appetite: ghrelin and leptin
  • Bariatric surgery
  • Pregnancy/breastfeeding
  • Cancer patients
  • Athletes

Diet Wars — There is no "one size fits all" in nutrition!
  • Mediterranean — the gold standard
  • Keto
  • Intermittent fasting & time-restricted eating
  • Low carb
  • High Protein
  • Vegan + different types of vegetarian diets
  • Elimination diets
  • And more!

When Hormones Come into the Picture
  • Cortisol
  • Insulin
  • Thyroid
  • Estrogen and progesterone
  • Testosterone
  • Perimenopause, menopause & andropause
  • When to refer for testing
Gut Check: Impacts on Overall Gut Health
  • Digestion and absorption
  • Intestinal barrier — its function and what happens when it becomes leaky
  • Microbiome — the power of bacteria
  • How the gut impacts hormones, skin, immunity, and mood
  • 5R protocol — how to heal the gut

Strategies for Working with Special Populations
  • Diabetes & insulin resistance
  • Hypertension
  • Hypercholesterolemia
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Anxiety & Depression
  • Insomnia & Fatigue
  • Autoimmunity
  • Osteoarthritis

Optimize Sleep, Stress Management, and Circadian Rhythms
  • Patient Assessment
  • Sleep hygiene, habits & quality
  • Stress levels and intentional practice
  • Current alignment to circadian rhythms
  • Lifestyle programs & mindfulness training
  • Customized & systemized approach for circadian alignment

Speakers

Cindi Lockhart
Cindi Lockhart RDN, LD, IFNCP

Cindi Lockhart, RDN, LD, IFNCP, is board-certified as an integrative and functional nutrition practitioner with over 30 years in professional practice. She has trained nutrition, fitness, and medical practitioners throughout most of her career, yet maintains a personal practice with clients as she believes that the only way she can effectively educate and inspire other practitioners is through her own practical experience with clients. In addition to educating on how Food is Medicine, Cindi also specializes in coaching clients and practitioners on the importance of managing stress, optimizing sleep, proper exercise and movement, and reducing exposure to environmental toxins. Cindi has extensive expertise in women’s health issues including perimenopause/menopause and thyroid dysfunction as well as autoimmunity, gut health, weight management, cardiometabolic health (insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease), fasting, histamine intolerance, mold detox, and long COVID.

Vanessa Ruiz
Vanessa Ruiz ND, RN-BSN

Vanessa Ruiz, ND, RN-BSN is a dedicated Naturopathic Physician and Registered Nurse, renowned for her holistic approach to mental health and chronic diseases. With a doctorate from Sonoran University in Tempe, AZ, and honors in nursing from Stony Brook University in NY, Dr. Ruiz blends evidence-based practices with natural treatments to provide comprehensive care for her patients. Her multifaceted background includes clinical research and extensive training in therapeutic modalities such as Homeopathy, Neurofeedback, and Mayan Medicine.

CE Information

This activity offers 21.0 CE credits to attendees.

Accredited by ANCC.

Credit eligibility by state, board, and more information can be found here: Food as Medicine Certification: Clinical Applications for Healthcare


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