A unique fusion of education and research-informed professional practice
Founded in 1984 by Patrick Holford, the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) is a leading higher education establishment in the United Kingdom for personalised nutrition and lifestyle medicine training and continual professional development.
Our mission is to educate and enthuse, instilling personalised nutrition as the foundation of health for all. We specialise in professional courses for adult learners seeking to change and/or add nutrition to their current practice.
ION offers flexible routes to professional qualifications in personalised nutrition and lifestyle medicine. All our courses are delivered online. Optional in-person enhancement days are available for case study workshops and meeting industry partners. Through our online delivery of courses we provide a stimulating, challenging, and rewarding learning experience. We offer a unique fusion of education and research-informed professional practice.
Our staff bring their clinical and industry expertise and talents to build our creative global learning community. Our aim is to nourish, empower and transform people through our education and equip them to be able to make informed choices around personalised nutrition and lifestyle decisions.
Courses
Functional nutrition, personalised nutrition, and lifestyle medicine.
Types of qualifications
CertHE; Undergraduate degrees; Professional training or CPD; Short courses.
Academic partnerships
Our degrees are validated by the University of Portsmouth. Our courses are accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC).
UK Education
Course delivery in the UK
Online
Short course or micro credentials
Professional training
Courses offered in the UK
Cert HE Personalised Diet and Health (practitioner qualification for dietary educators)
BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy (clinical practitioner course)
Grad Dip Integrative Functional Nutrition (practitioner course for medics and allied healthcare professionals)
Short courses and micro credentials:
Diet and Health Credit Bearing Short Course (introductory course to the principles of nutrition).
From the BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy course, modules can be taken as individual credit bearing short courses: Diet and Health, Behaviour Change in Nutrition and Lifestyle Practice, and Business and Career Planning and Research Skills.
All modules from the Graduate Diploma Integrative Functional Nutrition can be taken as individual credit bearing short courses: Functional Nutrition, Modulation of Detoxification and Gastrointestinal Function, Modulation of Neuroendocrine Function, Modulation of Cardiometabolic Function, Modulation of Immune Function and Clinical Practice.
Transnational Education (TNE)
Course delivery outside the UK
Online
Short course or micro credentials
Professional training
Current provision to overseas partners
Consultancy to develop education materials, technology or training.
We have advised two Israeli companies: AnyDish, providing feedback on the accuracy, specialist dietary requirement content, and usability of a personalised food and recipe app for English speaking practitioners and patients; Efficasafe, an online resources for checking drug nutrient interactions.
Current TNE offer
We have students from across the globe on our fully online courses.
We also work closely with students from allied health fields around the world, who access our courses to support their practice in fields such as medicine, sport science, psychology and others.
We work with partners to deliver professional training in the area of personalised functional nutrition to healthcare practitioners seeking to support patients through nutrition and lifestyle medicine.
Online learning is offered globally without local support.