Learn to evaluate your choices of what to eat by better understanding the biochemistry of food. What is a carbohydrate, a fat, a protein? What difference does it make which of those you choose to eat? What is a free radical and what is an antioxidant? How does your body use the food you’ve eaten? What difference does it make? By examining these questions and others you may never have asked or be interested in you will have information to make better choices about what to eat, often by simply looking at a food. This course is aimed at those with little knowledge or interest in biochemistry and is intended to provide you with a better basic understanding of what you are eating and the physiological impact of those choices. We will also look at epigenetics, the microbiome and immune system to learn how they are affected by your diet. The intent is to equip you to make wiser, informed choices about what you choose to eat.



Dr. Nathanial Kirkland was a family physician in Woodstock, VA for 49 years before retiring to Harrisonburg four years ago. He went to medical school at the University of Virginia and then completed a three-year residency training there, serving as Chief Resident in Family Practice for the last year. He then began his solo practice in Woodstock, with a “cradle to grave” practice, caring for newborns, hospital and ICU patients, covering the emergency room and seeing his patients in several nursing homes. Along the way he became aware that most of the conditions he was treating were fundamentally the result of life style choices that his patients were making. With a strong interest in the mind-body connection, he pursued training with Jim Gordon at the Center for Mind Body Medicine in DC and Jon-Kabot Zinn at the Stress Reduction program at UMass and incorporated these trainings into his practice. He also became Board Certified in Medical Acupuncture and completed the training in functional medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine with emphasis on the role of diet in health outcomes.