Integrative Nutrition Road Show

Last night I attended a presentation by Joshua Rosenthal who is the founder of Integrative Nutrition. I expected a rousing, energetic, “fists in the air” type of talk about nutrition. Instead the energy of the talk was very purposeful, grounded, and sincere. Mr. Rosenthal’s demeanor was very kindly and calm. It’s nice when presenters can just be who they are. We don’t all have to be Rachel Ray smiley-loud-pants. That style is so popular in our Western culture. So what I’m saying here is that I wasn’t the least bit disappointed.

Some important things I heard last night:
- The U.S. is the 37th best country (yeah—best) for healthcare. We fall one notch below Slovenia
- Healthy eaters are an “oppressed minority”. THANK YOU JOSHUA FOR SAYING THAT. We are constantly made fun of—“What is that you are eating?” Like I never hear that in the lunch room.? No wonder most people don’t want to be healthy, you get to be alienated and made fun of. Oh you’re a healthy eater, I can’t hang out with you.
- As our diets are becoming less about real food we are becoming less human—infertility, disease, obesity, etc.
- Americans get better service at Starbuck’s than they do at most doctors

Part of the talk was a promo for the school. Many of the attendees, like me, are potential students. I like the school's open approach to studying over 100 types of diets. IIN doesn’t recommend one diet over the other, it’s about bio-individuality. There isn’t one diet that’s perfect for everyone but of course eating real food works for everyone. Even if you do find the perfect diet, that diet might need tweaking over the years. I loved Ayurveda in the beginning but found I needed more protein. So my diet is a modified high protein diet with foods that are still compatible for my dosha, I’ve only tweaked the macronutrients.

The tuition is roughly $9K plus travel time one weekend a month would probably cost me roughly $15K. It’s not just the money but the time spent away from making art. I don’t live large but I do enjoy the occasional latte, good book, or makeup product from Benefit. I’ve been really broke before, I don’t know if I want to do it again. Also, I don’t want to spend this amount of money and not well . . . make money. The grads I spoke with last night seem really happy and are employed so that was encouraging.

June is my month to experiment and then see where I really want to put my focus. I’ve been scattered for too long. I’m also taking an encaustic painting class at the Evanston Art Center. If I become enraptured with my art again then I will put my money/focus/energy toward that. If not then maybe I’ll become a nutritional counsellor or as Joshua puts it a “health coach”.