This course can be undertaken for personal and professional development or as a specialty unit within the Certificate or Diploma of Integrative Sport and Exercise Nutrition courses.
Next course starts on 15th of May 2026
Within the traditional field of sports nutrition, there is a strong quantitative focus on macronutrients and the number of calories consumed - in other words, energetic nutrition. However, with an integrative view of nutrition, the word ‘energetic' takes on an entirely different meaning, particularly to a natural chef who epitomises a mind-body-food connection. If we can expansively energise our food offering to athletes, by the way we source and prepare them, we can in-turn energise the athlete’s body.
We consider food quality to be paramount at CISN. It is now clear that soil health and human microbiome health are closely related, so food sourcing is therefore a fundamental part of our message to practitioners and athletes.
Looking through the lens of natural cookery, preparation methods and ingredients can also transform foods into chosen energetic properties, including ‘groundedness', ‘expansion’, and ‘swiftness’.
As Rachel says; “natural cookery can, in effect, supersize the nutrient density, accessibility and absorbency of foods for an athletic body, which depends on a nutritional wholesomeness that cannot be obtained from a ‘fuel for the body’ paradigm.”
Please join your host Rachel Jesson for our unique cookery for sports nutrition course, which will expand your culinary repertoire and supercharge your athletes’ health-based performance.
This can be undertaken as a standalone course, or as a speciality unit as part of our Certificate of Integrative Sports Nutrition.
Who's it for
This natural sports cookery course is set up as a practical food-first application of integrative nutrition principles. It can be completed as a standalone module for purposes of CPDs or CEUs, for your personal progression as a home cook or professional chef, or as part of your integrative sports nutrition studies.
The course is open to everybody regardless of prior nutrition or cookery studies. Because we all need to prepare food, we all stand to gain invaluable knowledge, that will help our health, that of our families, and our clients.
As such, all our natural sports cookery courses attract a mix of nutrition practitioners and people who simply have an interest in food and health, who wish to improve their cooking knowledge and skills.
Course content
The natural sports cookery course consists of five weeks of theoretical and practical learning, culminating in the creation of a balanced meal in your own kitchen, under the watchful eye of Rachel. All in all, you’ll need to allow approximately five hours per week to do this course, plus whatever time you would like to practice the cooking methods.
We begin the course by introducing the concept of ‘natural’ sports cookery: why it is different from standard food preparation methods in sport, and how these techniques amplify the energetic potential of an athlete, from inside out?
Theory lectures
• Introduction to natural cookery: This presentation includes the theory and values of intuitive cooking, focussing on the importance of using our senses when preparing food (e.g. taste and smell). It also considers food sourcing, and reviews the culinary families of plant groups, including; grains, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.
• Kitchen staples: Crystal salts and probiotic rich finishing salts are reviewed, along with choices of good quality oils for cooking, including their smoke points. Cooking liquids are also considered, along with an array of herbs and spices to have at hand for particular dishes.
Practical demonstrations
• A tour of Rachel’s garden: The purpose of this video is to show you how easy it is to grow a few plants in your own garden, on your patio, or even windowsill. Having a few freshly picked ingredients can radically increase the flavour and nutrient density of your meals.
• Dry roasting cooking method: Rachel shows you how to dry roast nuts, seeds and grains, which is a beneficial method for amplifying flavour, adjusting texture, and increasing digestibility.
• Marinating cooking method: To observe using your senses and intuition, and in order to amplify flavour and nutrient density, you are demonstrated a vegetable and a bean marinate, culminating in a delicious bean salad. Additionally, Rachel shows you her famous chocolate almond truffles to illustrate her point that healthy food is nutritious and delicious!
In line with the nutritional needs of an athlete, the theme of week 2 is food energetics: not the number of calories in a meal, but the study of optimally harnessing energetic quantities of live food.
Theory lectures
• Energetic nutrition: This presentation delves into traditional wisdom with respect to the way we can influence the energetic properties of food via sourcing choices and preparation methods. It includes a discussion of the thermal properties of food, the life-force of live versus refined foods, and the way these affect our athletic body.
• Energetics of how vegetables grow: Different foods have different energetic values depending on the way they grow (e.g. above versus below-the-ground vegetables). In addition, different cooking methods impart varying energetic properties onto the foods we are preparing.
Practical demonstrations
• Pressure cooking beans: Rachel shows you how to pressure cook beans for optimum digestibility, which is vital for gastrointestinal health. She then creates hummus and bean burger patties.
• Steeping vegetables: In preparation for the food lab later in the week, you are shown how to steep broccoli and carrots.
Food lab
• Steeping vegetables: In your own kitchen, under the watchful eye of Rachel via Zoom, you are asked to steep one above-the-ground vegetable and one below-the-ground vegetable. This cooking method intensifies the flavour and nutrient density in contrast to popular (over-used) techniques such as steaming and boiling.
Week 3 focusses on amplifying the flavour and nutrient density of whole foods using traditional ‘processing’ methods.
Theory lectures
• Wholeness: This lecture illustrates the importance of cooking with foods in their original form. Rachel also differentiates between the act of ‘processing’ food in your own kitchen versus the purchasing of ‘refined’ foods. You are then introduced to bone broths and stocks as examples of processing food into a more nourishing state.
• Fermented foods: Fermentation has traditionally been used to preserve food and also amplify the microbial diversity, which is now being shown to support our microbiome; much needed by athletes. You are introduced to several types of ferments, considering why they could be of great benefit to an athlete in hard training.
Practical demonstrations
• Stocks, broths and slow cooked vegetables: Rachel shows you how to make a chicken stock and a beef bone broth using different techniques: both can be used as a cooking liquid for stews, curries, and soups. She also slow cooks sweet potatoes in a pan; a healthy and delectable alternative technique to roasting vegetables.
• Fermented foods: You are shown how to make a dairy kefir and yoghurt, which are then used as a base for a berry smoothie. Additionally, Rachel demonstrates the making of a red cabbage sauerkraut, flavoured water kefir, rejuvelac, and pickles.
Week 4 centres around the sport-specific topic of nutrient timing, from the perspective of nutrient amplification of whole foods, using healthy processing methods.
Theory lectures
• Pre-exercise nutrition: You are introduced to the topic of nutrient timing by Ian Craig, focusing firstly on why it is important to consume energy-supportive foods before exercise.
• During-exercise nutrition: From the perspective of performance nutrition, Ian shares research that demonstrates the importance of carbohydrate consumption during endurance exercise, and he shares some of his favourite DIY sports drinks.
• Post-exercise nutrition: Looking at recovery as paramount, Ian again delves into the research of food and drink combinations that best support anabolic gain post-exercise.
• Meal compositions for an athlete: Considering sport-specific nutritional demands, combined with the theory of nutrient timing, Rachel creates a meal composition for a young competitive tennis player.
Practical demonstrations
• Pre-exercise nutrition: Based on the theory from Ian’s lecture, Rachel makes a hearty millet porridge and a breakfast granola.
• During-exercise nutrition: Based on the theory of sports drink composition, you are shown from an energetic perspective how to make three different types of healthy DIY sports drinks.
• Post-exercise nutrition: Based on the theory of post-exercise recovery, you are shown Rachel’s famous ‘super-filling protein-packed peanut butter smoothie’, and a protein-rich oat and nut tray bake.
• Case study – lunch for a tennis player: Using the meal composition plan from her theory lecture, Rachel shows you how to make a most delicious, nutrient-amplified and nutrient-diverse open sandwich for our young tennis player’s lunch.
Week 5 is an opportunity for you to bring all your learnings together from the course; you will create a meal composition for an athlete and then prepare the meal in your own kitchen.
Practical demonstration
• Wholesome chocolate cake: A cookery course wouldn’t be complete without dessert, so Rachel upgrades a traditional chocolate cake recipe using whole ingredients, including a vegetable, to make a delicious, yet extremely healthy, recovery-supporting cake!
Food lab
• Meal composition: After drafting a meal composition for an athlete, you will discuss it thoroughly during the Zoom session. You’ll then prepare and cook this nutrient replete and balanced meal in your own kitchen under the watchful eye of Rachel.
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About Rachel
Rachel Jesson B.Phys.Ed (Hons) M.Phil. is a certified natural food chef and an ex-South African triathlete, with a contagious and passionate enthusiasm for nourishing foods and optimal health.
She is a senior teacher at the School of Natural Cookery and is the first natural chef to extend these cooking methods out into the demanding field of athletic performance; hence being the host of this course.
Rachel insists that for health, we need to keep things simple; she takes inspiration from previous generations with regard to the preparation of wholesome food. Her latest projects include recipe and product development, creating highly nutritious school lunch boxes, snacks and desserts, fermented foods, sports bars, and upgrading classical dishes so they’re healthy and whole.
Rachel is the co-author of Wholesome Nutrition, within which she focussed on the food sourcing information and the beautiful recipe section, and she has contributed regularly to the Functional Sports Nutrition publication. Therapeutically, within the Nutritional Institute, which she co-founded with Ian Craig, she works as a health food coach, helping individuals to put nutritional interventions into a practical, food-focussed form.
Rachel’s educational achievements include an honours degree in physical education (B.Phys.Ed) and a masters degree in sport science and sport psychology (M.Phil), and she is also NLP trained. Additionally, she became a Natural Plant-Based Chef to teach this programme, and others. Rachel has spent the past 20 years immersing herself in the study of whole, traditional and living foods.
Course dates
Now accepting applications for our next running of this module.
Module start dates for 2026: 15 May and 30 October
Next course start date:
15th of May 2026 (1pm UK time)
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