Farming for Health Podcast #4: Jess Higgins Kelley

Amy Sapola talks with nutritional therapist Jess Higgins Kelley in this edition of our Farming for Health podcast. They chat about how Jess ultimately began to focus on quality nutrition for people with cancer—and how she has helped to redirect the traditional conversation on the subject. 

Today, Jess is internationally recognized in her field. She began by earning a B.A. in Journalism from Western Colorado University. The health-related articles she wrote help her today as she serves as a health educator. Then, in 2010, she completed her two-year master nutrition therapy training at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado. She then taught at the institution for several years, appreciating the healing power of plants, and the vitamins and minerals they provide to people. 

Beginning a private practice, she would find herself helping people with a variety of health concerns: from weight loss to managing auto-immune conditions, digestive concerns, mental health, and more. 

Through a series of her own life events, she gravitated towards helping people with cancer. That, by itself, was a complex endeavor, and she sought out training to become as informed as possible. Jess then became the director of Oncology Nutrition Institute in 2016, a position she still holds. This institute provides global online certification programs for integrative metabolic oncology nutrition therapy for qualified practitioners.

Jess is also the co-author of two books:

• The Metabolic Approach to Cancer: Integrating Deep Nutrition, the Ketogenic Diet, and Nontoxic Bio-Individualized Therapies 
• Bioregulatory Medicine: An Innovative Holistic Approach to Self-Healing 

Through her learning and her writing, Jess discovered that about one in three people with cancer ask their doctors about dietary recommendations. The standard answer? It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you don’t gain weight.

Fortunately, as more research was conducted, better answers are now available to help people with cancer eat the optimal way for their specific condition—and this has become Jess’s area of expertise.

Now, here she is herself, sharing her in-depth expertise on Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables.

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food.

Stay tuned for more!