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Nutritional Psychology Program
The Center for Nutritional Psychology (CNP) empowers professionals to understand the complex interconnections between what we eat and how we
think, feel, and experience, enabling the use of nutrition as a powerful tool to support improved mental health and well-being.
Through CNP’s groundbreaking, evidence-based educational program, professionals acquire practical, advanced skills that bridge the psychological and nutritional sciences, enabling them to effectively incorporate evidence-based nutrition information into their professional care within the scope of practice, thereby addressing the urgent need for a nutritional perspective in modern mental healthcare.
What is the Nutritional Psychology Program?
CNP’s Nutritional Psychology program is designed to equip learners with a clear understanding of the connection between diet and mental health, while building practical skills that can be applied in both personal and professional settings.
This program includes continuing education courses, three certificates, and a micro-degree in nutritional psychology. Learners may take continuing education courses individually within each of the three certificates. Those who complete all three certificates—Theoretical Foundations, Biological Mechanisms, and Professional Applications—earn the Micro-Degree in Nutritional Psychology.
CNP’s Nutritional Psychology program guides learners from foundational theoretical concepts through the biological mechanisms that explain the causal links between nutrition and mental health, and into the application of NP-related tools and methods in professional practice.
Explore the major psychological theories and integrative frameworks that underlie the field of NP. These include foundational models in personality, motivation, emotion, cultural influences, attachment, and behavior change, all of which influence our understanding of how dietary factors impact psychological health and well-being and can support the development of real-world interventions in eating behavior, mental health, and dietary behavior change.
Explore how nutrients and dietary patterns influence physiological processes, the gut-brain axis, neurochemical signaling, and neural pathways—impacting mood, cognition, emotional well-being, hormones, neurotransmitters, and metabolism.
Professionals who complete the NP Micro-degree are equipped to integrate psychonutritional education into their practice, helping clients understand how diet can influence mental health within their scope of work.
For mental health professionals, these skills allow for exploring aspects of one’s diet-mental health relationship, including, for example, the impact of their early attachment patterns on emotional and disordered eating, how their dietary intake may be influencing their neurological, cognitive, behavioral, brain–gut processes, and how psychological stressors may be affecting their eating habits and behaviors. Through education, clients may gain new insights, awareness, and internal motivation to engage in balanced eating and its role in strengthening their mood, resilience, and emotional well-being.
For dietitians and nutritionists, many experience that despite their clients being educated in proper dietary patterns, barriers to healthy eating often involve psychological, behavioral, cognitive, and psychosocial elements, which, if left unaddressed, impede progress in incorporating healthy eating habits. Applications of nutritional psychology can also involve educating clients on how specific dietary patterns interact with stress to drive brain changes, cravings, and eating for pleasure versus nutritional benefit, hunger, and resilience (see the generated image above).
This training broadens professionals’ knowledge of the connection between diet and mental health, increases their ability to communicate and collaborate with other professionals, fosters a shared language and evidence-based care, and enhances client support while respecting each profession’s scope of practice (see the generated image above).
Why Complete the Nutritional Psychology Program?
Mental health professionals are increasingly recognizing the bidirectional relationship between diet and mental health; yet, most report having limited formal training in nutrition and a strong desire for further education in this area.
CNP’s Nutritional Psychology program leverages a broad and deep evidence base, consolidating research from multiple disciplines on how diet influences psychological processes and functioning, mood, cognition, brain, sleep, stress, resilience, and overall well-being. The field is rapidly evolving to offer new models for integrating nutrition into mental healthcare.
Interprofessional collaboration between psychologists and dietitians is gaining momentum. Evidence suggests it can improve mental health outcomes, and preliminary precedent exists in educating professionals while maintaining clear professional boundaries.
Integrating nutrition into mental healthcare requires formalized education and training programs, an interdisciplinary language that connects the two fields, and established pathways for interprofessional collaboration.
In short, mental health and nutrition have long been treated as separate fields—yet in everyday life, they constantly interact (Adan et al., 2019; Grajek et al., 2022; Van Der Pols, 2018). CNP’s Nutritional Psychology program is the formal field of study joining these fields and providing professionals with evidence-based knowledge and skills to better support the mental health of their clients.
Why Study Our Program at the Center for Nutritional Psychology (CNP)?
Global Nonprofit Leader:CNP is the only nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to defining and developing Nutritional Psychology. Since 2015, we have pioneered the field worldwide.
Evidence-Based Curriculum:Our program is built on peer-reviewed research and developed by leading experts in psychology, nutrition, education, and functional medicine.
Approved Sponsor for Continuing EducationCNP is an approved sponsor for continuing education for licensed professionals in both disciplines. Approvals for CNP include the APA, CAMFT, CDR, and NBCC.
Building the Future of Nutritional Psychology: Through the Encyclopedia of Nutritional Psychology,Nutritional Psychology Research Libraries (NPRL), and the world’s first structured NP educational program, CNP is advancing the field with the long-term vision of integrating Nutritional Psychology into mental healthcare by 2030.
Interdisciplinary & Flexible Learning: Our program integrates psychology, nutrition, and neuroscience into a unified framework, offered 100% online and self-paced, with stackable credentials that grow with your career.
Trusted Worldwide: Our resources and programs are used by educators, healthcare providers, and researchers across multiple disciplines and countries.
Who Should Enroll in the Nutritional Psychology Program?
This program is intended for:
Students
I want cutting-edge education to prepare me for a career in psychology, nutrition, or health sciences.
Professionals
I need tools to integrate nutrition into mental health care, and psychology affects why clients resist healthy eating.
Educators
I want to bring NP into my classroom.
Researchers
I’m shaping public health frameworks for the future.
Lifelong Learners
I’m curious about how food influences how we feel.
What You’ll Gain in the Nutritional Psychology Program
- Evidence-based post-graduate level education that leads to a Micro-Degree in Nutritional Psychology
- Practical knowledge and career-ready skills in a rapidly growing field
- Shared language for interdisciplinary collaboration
- Ethical and professional practice foundations
- Critical thinking & research skills
- Stackable credentials to showcase your specialty
- A role in shaping the future of mental health through nutrition
Start Your Nutritional Psychology Program
Nutritional Psychology Program References
Stroebele-Benschop, N., Hedrih, V., Behairy, S., Pervaiz, N., & Morphew-Lu, E. (2025).
Conceptual framework for nutritional psychology as a new field of research.
Behavioral Sciences, 15(8), 1007.
https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081007
Adan, R. A., Van Der Beek, E. M., Buitelaar, J. K., Cryan, J. F., Hebebrand, J., Higgs, S., Schellekens, H., & Dickson, S. L. (2019).
Nutritional psychiatry: Towards improving mental health by what you eat.
European Neuropsychopharmacology, 29(12), 1321–1332.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.10.011
Grajek, M., Krupa-Kotara, K., Białek-Dratwa, A., Sobczyk, K., Grot, M., Kowalski, O., & Staśkiewicz, W. (2022).
Nutrition and mental health: A review of current knowledge about the impact of diet on mental health.
Frontiers in Nutrition, 9.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.943998
Van Der Pols, J. C. (2018).
Nutrition and mental health: Bidirectional associations and multidimensional measures.
Public Health Nutrition, 21(5), 829–830.
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980017003974
Hedrih, V. (2025).
Can Better Collaboration Between Dietitians and Psychologists Enhance Depression Treatment?
CNP Articles in Nutritional Psychology.
Can Better Collaboration Between Dietitians and Psychologists Enhance Depression Treatment?
