Introducing "The Art of Health"

Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard

Dear Readers,

In addition to my regular weekly Image of the Week newsletters, I'm pleased to announce a new series of articles called The Art of Health. In these articles, I'll be writing about cutting edge nutrition and health issues, and illustrating the basic concepts behind them.  

Anyone who knows me personally knows I'm passionate about nutrition and health. In addition to being a professional illustrator, fine art painter, children's book author, and arts-in-ed teacher, I wear another hat: I'm a certified integrative health coach, with a focus on nutrition and herbal medicine. During the pandemic I went back to school, and after a year of online study at Duke University, became certified as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021. Six more months of study at Cornell University earned my certification in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. In addition, I studied human nutrition at Empire State College; took online courses with the Portland School of Herbal Medicine; and illustrated two books on herbal medicine by renowned herbalist Susun Weed. For the past five years I've also worked for Catskill Fungi, foraging wild mushrooms, leading mushroom walks, making medicinal mushroom extracts, and writing newsletters. But most important, I've been making and using my own herbal remedies for decades; collaborating with other herbalists; experimenting with recipes; reading books on herbal medicine; and observing the healing and nourishing effects of plant and fungi-based medicines on myself, my children, friends, neighbors, and pets. 

Food is medicine, and good nutrition can both prevent and reverse chronic disease. I'm a walking example of this myself, having overcome health problems that date back to my childhood by changing my diet. Food is powerful, both as the foundation of health and the potential destroyer of it. It's also the cultural glue that holds families, communities, and whole societies together. 

Cultivating good health is as much an art as a science. It’s an individual creative process. My goal as a health and nutrition coach is to help people clarify their goals, understand their food choices, and take realistic steps toward optimal health. Integrative health coaching comes from the belief that all areas of human health – nutrition, exercise, sleep, relationships, purpose, and spirituality – are interrelated. My main focus in The Art of Health will be nutrition and herbs. I'll be sending these newsletters out roughly every three weeks – and as always, building bridges between life and art by illustrating the concepts I write about.  

The first concept of health I want to share is encapsulated in this sun logo: for the sun is the life-giving energy that permeates the entire food chain to nourish our bodies, from the light rays in the sky to photosynthesizing plants and their fungal symbionts, to grazing animals and fish, and finally to our own cellular mitochondria. Like sunlight, good health makes us shine, and the power to create it is in our hands.  Health is both given and cultivated – a blend of nature and nurture.

I’ve also launched a ten-day nutrition program for teens titled "Outside the Box.” I'm excited to bring cutting-edge nutrition concepts to high school students, and hope to give them the knowledge they need to make a good start in life.  Of course, art is part of this program, too – for all learning can be channeled into creative expression.  

To learn more about health coaching sessions for groups, pairs, or individuals; or about my nutrition-based program for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email me at dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com.

To your good health –

D. Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach

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