Food for Life Classes

This four-class series presents health-promoting dietary strategies that are both budget-friendly and accessible.

Nutrition education components help individuals to connect diet and disease outcomes while they are simultaneously learning about easy-to-prepare plant-based recipes. Not only are ingredients and recipes budget-friendly and accessible, but minimal kitchen tools are required for food preparation.

Participants will take away knowledge and strategies that will help them to realize savings in the short- and long-term, both in terms of their dollars saved and enhanced quality of life.

Each class features a cooking demonstration with samples of delicious and health-promoting dishes, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• The Power of Your Plate

• How Foods Fight Diabetes

• Foods for a Healthy Weight

• How Foods Fight Heart Disease

Supplemental Classes

• Grocery Store Tour

Often with demands from work and family, women find it difficult to prioritize their own health. However, the consequences of putting healthy lifestyle choices on the back burner can have dire consequences. In Aotearoa New Zealand, heart disease and cancer are the top two leading causes of death among women. In addition, the New Zealand Health Survey 2020/21 found that there was a significant increase in obesity for women (31.9% to 35.9%). Research shows that plant-based eating can help women of all ages, and in all corners of the globe, to prevent and survive all of these diseases and more.

Featured Class Topics (Younger Group)

• Foods for Fertility

• Curing Cramps and Premenstrual Syndrome

• Reversing Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

• Tackling Hormone-Related Cancers

• A Healthy Thyroid

• Foods and Mood

• Foods and Breast Cancer Survival

• Food for a Healthy Heart

Featured Class Topics (Older Group)

• Tackling Hormone-Related Cancers

• A Healthy Thyroid

• Foods and Mood

• Tackling Menopause

• Foods and Breast Cancer Survival

• Food for a Healthy Heart

This four-class series promotes a low-fat plant-based diet for preventing some of the most common chronic diseases. Grounded in evidence-based science, this series will empower participants by revealing the whys and hows—the knowledge and skills—for effective and long-term weight loss and maintenance in support of overall health.

Participants receive helpful, easy-to-follow handouts and guides to cement learning and ease them into implementation of new dietary changes, including healthy menu ideas, weekly menu planning guides, suggested plant-based recipe substitutions, an easy-to-follow fiber-tracker, and more.

Featured Class Topics

• Kickstart Your Health

• Let’s Go!

• Getting in Gear

• Weight Loss

This seven-class series guides participants on a journey toward healthy weight loss, healthy weight maintenance, and an overall healthful and sustainable diet.

For some participants, this may be the first time that food choice is prioritized over restricting food amounts as a guiding principle to support long-term health.

This is a lifesaving learning experience bolstered by delicious plant-based recipes that help to lower cholesterol, control diabetes, lower blood pressure, and even boost energy and mood.

Each class features a cooking demonstration, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Power of Your Plate

• Let’s Go!

• Getting in Gear

• Breaking the Food Seduction

• Keys for Natural Appetite Control

• Digestive Health

• Healthy Blood Pressure

Whether participants are competitive athletes or individuals with active lifestyles, this course will provide insight into the best plant-based foods and nutrients to power athletic performance and physical activity. Similarly, participants will learn dietary strategies to reduce inflammation and support recovery outcomes.

The class features a cooking demonstration of delicious, health-promoting dishes, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Learn the foods and nutrients that provide optimal nutrition for active and athletic lifestyles.

• Explore how a plant-based diet reduces inflammation and improves recovery.

• Examine macronutrients—carbohydrate, fat, and protein—and learn why plant-based sources are optimal for athletes.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, studies and data have shown individuals with underlying chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or obesity are at greater risk of developing severe infection.

This series of four classes will illuminate how a diet rich in low-fat plant-based foods counters chronic conditions and supports a healthy immune system, and thereby reduces the likelihood of severe COVID-19 and hospitalization. Participants will leave with knowledge and skills to boost immunity long after the pandemic.

Each class features a cooking demonstration, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Cancer-Fighting Compounds and Immune Boosting Foods

• Foods for a Healthy Heart

• Introduction to How Foods Fight Diabetes

• Foods and Mood

The classes in this series will bring into focus the undeniable connection between diet and cancer risk.

Based on the Physicians Committee’s groundbreaking Cancer Project curriculum, the first four classes will focus on the role of different foods and nutrients in either promoting or discouraging growth of different cancers, including breast cancer. The last class will focus more specifically on foods that have been shown to directly reduce breast cancer risk and support survival.

Each class features a cooking demonstration of delicious, health-promoting dishes, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

The intended audience of the Food for Life: Let’s Beat Breast Cancer classes are cancer survivors and their family and friends, as well as those looking to prevent the disease. These classes are not intended for individuals currently undergoing breast cancer treatment.

Featured Class Topics

• Introduction: How Foods Fight Cancer

• Fueling Up on Low-Fat, High-Fiber Foods

• Discovering Meat and Dairy Alternatives

• Cancer-Fighting Compounds and Healthy Weight Control

• Food for Breast Cancer Prevention and Survival

This seven-class series guides participants to make the critical connection between diet and the risk of developing various forms of cancer.

With a focus on low-fat plant-based nutrition, participants develop an understanding of specific foods and nutrients that either promote or discourage cancer development. Each class features a cooking demonstration of delicious, health-promoting dishes, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home. The program includes optional bonus content addressing breast cancer and prostate cancer specifically.

The intended audience for this series includes cancer survivors and their family and friends as well as individuals looking to prevent cancer. Classes are not meant for individuals currently undergoing cancer treatment.

Featured Class Topics

• Introduction: How Foods Fight Cancer

• Fueling Up on Low-Fat Foods

• Favoring Fiber

• Discovering Dairy Alternatives

• Replacing Meat

• Cancer-Fighting Compounds and Immune-Boosting Foods

• Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Supplemental Classes

• Foods and Breast Cancer Survival

• Foods and Prostate Cancer Survival

The eight-class Diabetes Initiative series provides the knowledge, tools, and lifestyle strategies to help individuals reduce the risk of developing diabetes, and to manage and even reverse the disease. Classes are intended for those with diabetes, prediabetes, or a family history or risk factors for developing diabetes, and their adult family members and loved ones.

Each class in the program will feature nutrition education and cooking demonstrations, and participants will leave with a selection of affordable and easy recipes they can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Introduction to How Foods Fight Diabetes

• The Power of Your Plate and Grocery Cart

• Understanding Type 2 Diabetes

• Designing a Diet for Maximum Weight Control

• The Glycemic Index

• Keeping a Healthy Heart

• Diabetes Care From Head to Toe

• Making It Work for You

This class will arm participants with the knowledge and practical skills to take action to bolster heart health through simple diet and lifestyle changes.

Topics addressed focus on cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, with recipes and nutrition strategies for improving or reversing these conditions. The intended outcome is to guide class participants toward healthier low-fat plant-based diets that reduce incidence of cardiovascular disease.

The class features a cooking demonstration of delicious, health-promoting dishes, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• High blood pressure: A plant-based diet, rich in potassium, improves blood pressure.

• High cholesterol: Aim for high-fiber foods, which can help to lower cholesterol.

• Atherosclerosis: Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol reduce plaque build-up in the arteries and improve blood flow.

• Inflammation: Plant-based diets help reduce inflammation, which can lead to heart disease.

This class will shine a light on the foods and nutrients to prioritize for optimal brain health. Drawing from the book Power Foods for the Brain by Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, the class will guide participants through the research supporting a low-fat plant-based diet for maintaining brain function and minimizing risk for cognitive decline.

The class features a cooking demonstration of delicious recipes made from a selection of brain power foods, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Learn foods and ingredients to prioritize, and those to limit.

• Explore vitamins and nutrients that support brain health.

• Examine supplements to add to your daily routine and those to avoid.

This nine-class series draws from the popular book Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health by Neal Barnard, MD, FACC.

Focusing on a variety of hormone-related conditions that impact women and men of all ages and life stages, class content in this series examines how specific dietary changes work to bring hormone levels into balance. From infertility and thyroid function to toxic chemicals in the environment, participants will learn strategies they can apply in their daily lives to prevent, manage, or even reverse hormone-related conditions.

Each class features a cooking demonstration, along with handouts of easy and affordable recipes participants can prepare at home.

Featured Class Topics

• Foods for Fertility

• Curing Cramps and Premenstrual Syndrome

• Tackling Hormone-Related Cancers

• Reversing Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Conquering Diabetes

• Tackling Menopause

• Curing Erectile Dysfunction and Saving Your Life

• A Healthy Thyroid

• Foods and Mood

• Avoiding Environmental Chemicals

The Employee Wellness Program is a nine-week workplace class series intended to guide staff members as they work to unlock the role of food choices for better health.

Through the introduction of plant-based nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, and supportive group discussion, employees will take away the learning and tools they apply practically for improving overall health and reducing chronic disease risk.

Additional and significant benefits to employees include lowered health care costs, fewer sick days, and improved energy and moods. Notable benefits to employers include reduced absenteeism, reduction of health care costs, and improved staff productivity.

Featured Class Topics

• Power of Your Plate

• Let’s Go!

• Getting in Gear

• Breaking the Food Seduction

• Keys for Natural Appetite Control

• Digestive Health

• Introduction to How Foods Fight Cancer

• Introduction to How Foods Fight Diabetes

• Healthy Blood Pressure 

This four-class series is designed to be a fun and engaging learning experience for kids between the ages of 9 and 12 and in grades 4-6. The program accentuates the positives of healthy foods (whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables) found on the Power Plate.

As the children are exposed to the benefits of consuming a healthful diet, they are also tasting delicious foods prepared during a live cooking demonstration. Kids will participate in games and activities to cement their learning, and they will be provided with handouts of the recipes so they can share and prepare them at home.

The goal of this series is to provide foundational knowledge and skills to children early in life to set them up for success well into adulthood.

Featured Class Topics

• Breakfast

• Snacks

• Lunch

• Dinner