Introduction 

Welcome to the Functional Nutrition Course's fundamentals. It doesn't matter if you're a health professional or simply seeking to enhance your knowledge about nutrition, we firmly believe that you have the authority to question conventional beliefs and challenge existing models. This course empowers you to make informed decisions that benefit you, your loved ones, and your clients. 

By understanding how to access and critically analyse information and apply this training in your own life, you will quickly learn to navigate through the current nutritional 'minefield' to make informed decisions about your food and nutrition. 

The Functional Nutrition Course contains 12 modules. The following sample class is the first lesson of module one and will introduce you to the concept of vitalism, cultural anthropology, food trends and nutrition in the 21st Century. 

Module 1 – History of nutrition trends

 “Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” Charles Darwin. 

Nutrition and health is the 'cornerstone' of wellbeing and longevity. Since our humble beginnings as a species our genes have been shaped by subsistence strategies that have played a critical role in our evolution. For example, improvements in the quality of diets were critical for the development of a larger brain in Homo sapiens. However, profound changes in our diet and lifestyle that began with the introduction of the agricultural revolution, and more recently, the availability of energy-dense processed foods are thought to be too recent to facilitate adaptive changes in our genes to compensate for these new dietary practices. 

Accordingly, it is suggested that the discordance between our ancestral legacy and contemporary lifestyles may be contributing to several 'lifestyle' diseases such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, type 2 diabetes, and many others. 

Furthermore, in our industrialised and technologically sophisticated lives humans are losing touch with the realities of the natural world. Many of us don’t understand where our food comes from; we spend large amounts of money on things we don’t need; we are stressed, confused, and frustrated. The benefits of embracing nature on our mental and physical health have been thoroughly demonstrated and evidence conclusively indicates that knowing and experiencing nature makes us generally happier and healthier people. Accordingly, understanding where we 'fit' in nature will help us appreciate where we have come from and where we might be heading as a species. 

This module will introduce participants to the concept of vitalism and the human body’s innate intelligence. It will 'set the scene' for all other corresponding modules and provide the core principles that support the overall Functional Nutrition Course. We will also take an excursion through time to investigate food and nutrition and develop an understanding of current food trends and nutritional habits in modern society. This will create a strong foundation for participants to commence their investigative journey into the world of food and nutrition. 

Module 1, lesson 1 – What is Vitalism What Is Vitalism? 

Vitalism is a philosophy that respects the structure and function of living organisms while at the same time recognising that organisms have an “innate intelligence” that is self-regulating and self-healing that is designed to maintain the whole living system’s functionality. 

Lesson 1 will introduce the participant to the concept of vitalism and the study of complex biological systems. The lesson aims to challenge your thinking about opposing views that question the vitalistic approach to life.   

Learning Objectives 

Upon completion of this lesson it is anticipated that participants will have a familiarity with the concept of vitalism and be able to apply some general reasoning behind a vitalistic approach to understanding life. 

To achieve the learning objectives you will need to: 

1. Have a basic understanding of the two concepts: vitalism and reductionism.
2. Understand that complex systems are not just the sum of their components but require all of their parts working together in harmony to achieve a specific outcome or function.
3. Apply some reasoning that in order to address problems associated with the biological sciences that the two philosophies: vitalism and reductionism, must find some common ground and work together in an interdisciplinary and harmonious manner.

Viewing Activity: 

To begin this lesson, please click to watch the following short video on vitalism. It is just over a minute long but sums up vitalism perfectly.

 We will now explore the concept of vitalism in more detail.  

Reading Activity: 

Please read the following lesson: Module1, Lesson 1 Vitalism.  

This reading briefly explores the historical perspective of vitalism in the context of the human sciences. Following this reading you will start to gain an appreciation and understanding of the complex nature of life and the fact that there are two competing philosophies: vitalism and reductionism. 

Let us explore these two concepts of vitalism and reductionism in a little more detail. A great place to start your journey to understand these two concepts is through the idea of Systems Thinking (that is, understanding that a system works as a whole rather than the sum of its parts). Also, you are probably aware that vitalism is not just the innate intelligence of the body to be self-aware and self-healing, but it is also grounded in holism; the idea that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as a whole system and not just a collection of their parts. 

Accordingly, the following video highlights how all of a system’s components are needed to interact effectively in order for the system to function. 

Viewing Activity: 

Please watch the following video on Complex Systems and Reductionism. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) 

Reading Activity: 

To finish off this lesson, please read Module 1, Reading 1.0. This short reading summarises the understanding of complex systems. Greek R (2013) Evolved Complex Systems. Biol Syst Open Access 2:e107. doi: 10.4172/2329-6577.1000e107. Copyright:© 2013 Greek R.  

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.   

For those that would like to be challenged further on the concept of vitalism, please read Module 1, Reading 1.1. “From substantival to functional vitalism and beyond: animas, organisms and attitudes (2011), Charles T. Wolfe, EIDOS Nº 14:212-235. 

Warning: This manuscript by Wolfe is quite complex and jargon-heavy. Don’t be put off by this as the paper provides a nice summary of vitalism and complex systems. 

If you’re passionate about nutrition and you’d like to take your health into your own hands, enrol in the Functional Nutrition Course and unlock full access! 

For detailed information on our Functional Nutrition course click here.