Our Classes
Food & Nutrition Program
We are excited to announce that the BC Brain Wellness Program is expanding to include nutrition programming! Initially, we will offer cooking classes and nutrition counselling, with plans to expand to a variety of classes and workshops designed to support brain health through nutrition.
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Brain-Power Kitchen: Nutrition for Brain Health
Build on your nutrition knowledge and cooking skills by attending our bi-weekly classes. Led by registered dietitian, dietetics students and guest speakers, these sessions include presentations, cook-alongs, and guided discussions with your peers.
These will be bi-weekly classes with alternating styles: week 1 features nutrition education and discussion, while week 3 class offers a cook-along session with recipe sharing (“Dish & Tell”).
What to prepare for the class: access to a kitchen, consider your current cooking and eating habits, bring your favourite recipe for sharing.
Date: Mondays bi-weekly
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Location: Online (link and instructions will be provided)
Instructors: Yolanda Wang & Diana Bratu
About the Instructors
Yolanda is a Registered Dietitian and an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certified personal trainer. As a UBC alumnus with a Dietetics Major and Kinesiology Minor, she is passionate about working with clients to develop a healthy and satisfying lifestyle. She has been working on the research side at the Brain Wellness Program under the supervision of Dr. Silke Cresswell, providing nutrition education and cooking together with research participants. Before joining the BC Brain Wellness team, she worked as a dietitian in acute care, gestational diabetes clinics, and long-term care facilities and as a personal trainer at UBC Recreation Center. She is excited to introduce the nutrition piece to the comprehensive lifestyle and wellness projects at BWP.
Diana is a third-year Dietetics student with a passion for nutrition and wellness education. She's dedicated to making preventative health interventions accessible to everyone through community-engaged initiatives. Diana's experience spans roles as a health coach and food relationship educator, all rooted in her belief in a holistic approach to to enhancing physical and mental health. When she's not immersed in her work, you can find her meditating in nature, traveling, or dancing!
One-on-One Nutrition Counselling
The BC Brain Wellness Program is excited to announce that we are now offering one-on-one nutrition counselling. These sessions will be offered virtually for BC residents who are living with Parkinson’s Disease or Atypical Parkinsonism Disorders (due to the requirement of the funding source and practitioner's license).
Sessions will be offered by Yolanda Nuanyan Wang, a Registered Dietitian and an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certified personal trainer. As a UBC alumnus with a Dietetics Major and Kinesiology Minor, Yolanda is passionate about working with clients to develop a healthy and satisfying lifestyle.
The one-on-one sessions can offer the following services:
Help managing Parkinson’s disease
Personalized nutrition care plans
Diet and lifestyle assessment
Answering food and nutrition questions
The one-on-one sessions are tailored to individuals' personal health status and goals. It can range from symptom management (such as constipation, dysphagia, hypogeusia, and delayed gastric emptying) to lifestyle intervention (optimizing your diet to support your daily activities and slow down disease progression).
The initial nutrition session is 45-60 minutes long and includes an assessment of your nutrition status and an estimation of your nutrition requirements. Follow-up sessions will be scheduled as needed based on the results of the assessment. Each follow-up session is 30 minutes long.
To book a session, please click on and complete the Referral Form to be placed on the waiting list. Any healthcare professional can refer their clients, and clients may also self-refer. Our staff will review the submissions to confirm eligibility and reach out to clients. Please be aware that there may be a considerable waiting time. We appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any questions, please email yolanda.wang@ubc.ca.
Why Your Feedback Matters
We are currently in the development phase and value your input to shape this program. Your feedback will help us determine which programs best meet your needs and preferences. Please take a moment to complete our anonymous survey and let us know what types of classes and activities you would like to see.