For Stacey Woodson, surprising encounters with nutritional data and local gardens were the catalysts for her life’s work. She’s a registered dietician, nutritionist and author who makes wellness accessible and joyful through hands-on experiences, workshops and demonstrations in and around Philadelphia. Woodson’s specialty is food as medicine, helping people to select and prepare tasty, cultural and nutritionally-beneficial foods to improve their health, holistically.
As a wellness practitioner, Woodson stays in nearly perpetual motion. She’s involved in ongoing nutritional and educational projects and regularly partners with schools, corporations, nonprofits and media outlets. Her services speak to all ages and include consulting, training, workshops, author visits, cooking demonstrations, grocery shopping tours and more.
Woodson’s path to become a Dietician-Nutritionist only became clear to her as she took steps along a similar, but different route. “I always had an interest in health,” she says. “I was actually planning on becoming a physician. I took the MCATS and applied and was in the interview process, and somewhere during that time I read an article about nutrition and it blew my mind.”
After unintentionally losing about 20 pounds through some simple nutrition and lifestyle changes, she found that people sought her out for advice. Woodson says, “That’s when it clicked – this is a big deal. A lot of the things I wanted to do as a physician, I could do in the world of nutrition.”
Woodson went back to school and got a second bachelor’s degree before completing a master’s and internship program at NYU. She now fuses her expertise in clinical nutrition and biology to help people eat for their physical and mental health. She takes an earth-centered approach, particularly in the context of urban agriculture.
Woodson says, “For me, it all came from just starting to garden. I live in a row home. There’s no physical green space. It’s concrete in the back and concrete in the font. One of my neighbors was in a community garden. I went and I was just blown away by seeing where food actually comes from. From there, I was able to get a plot and start my gardening journey. There’s always something to learn. At first, you don’t know much, but your mistakes are not in vain, because you’re just learning more. I got to the point where people were asking me things about gardening and I actually had the answers. That’s when I realized how important it was to marry these two things together – gardening and nutrition. There’s this disconnect from our food supply. So, I infused this into my practice, just being outdoors, because that’s so important. Even if people don’t want to grow food themselves, it’s valuable to understand the connections between ourselves, nature, the patterns, the seasons and what the earth provides for us.”
Woodson likes to illustrate these connections to people with seasonal fresh produce. She explains how summer foods have a high water content when we need the extra hydration, while autumn’s root vegetables are concentrated in nutrients and antioxidants right when we need them most. “Starting to bring that connection into my practice is something that’s been very well received by children and adults,” she says.
Some of Woodson’s recent offerings include Nourish & Flourish, a six-week virtual course about harnessing the power of food as medicine, podcast appearances, a Quick Meals workshop at Queen Memorial Library, Medicinal, Preservation and Africa to America Workshops at Nile Swim Club, storytime through The Food Trust and a Caribbean-inspired cookbook cooking class through the Culinary Literacy Center.
One of Woodson’s favorite activities is speaking engagements at conferences and workshops, like the PA Nutrition Education Network conference, the Healthcare Solutions Symposium and the Diversify Dietetics Summit. She’s also passionate about providing hands-on experience.
“I love garden workshops,” she says. “I pick a plant or a theme. We usually have a food paired with that and we learn about other easy ways to use that food. For instance, we talk about gut health and fermentation. This year, we did pickled watermelon rinds. We talked about the history of watermelons and had watermelon in salads. I always want it to be multi-sensory. If people have multiple ways to interact with foods, they’re more likely to try it again.
She also loves doing workshops within the community. In 2024, she produced an innovative and impactful educational program called Nourish Neighborhoods, made possible through a health justice mini grant and targeting BIPOC and/or disadvantaged residents of West Philadelphia.
She says, “I heard about the grant and thought, ‘What am I going to do that’s different?’ That’s what I try to think about: what angle can I bring that’s different and engaging. Obviously, people offer nutrition education and there are already group walks. I focused on building a hyper-local community. It was on a specific busy corridor in Philadelphia. I live one block from it. I was bringing things into my neighborhood and making sure there were several ways for the community to engage and connecting them with resources they may not have known were there.”
To achieve this hyper-local community experience, Woodson partnered with We Walk PHL walking group, Get Fresh Daily for fresh produce boxes, and the West Philadelphia YMCA to connect the program with the community.
“The YMCA donated the meeting space. We advertised in libraries, in local parks and Facebook groups. We had nutrition groups and we wanted people to be able to go home and experiment. Get Fresh Daily is based right on that corridor and they have a teaching garden, so people were actually able to get that sensory experience and see things growing.
Then our walks were two times per week. One was meant just for community-building and for activity. The longer walk on the weekends was a themed walk, based off of a book called 52 Ways to Walk by Annabell Abbs-Streets. There are different ways to experience walking that give us health benefits. For example, if we walk backwards, it can improve our memory. If you’re doing weird kinds of things it feels more comforting together than doing it by yourself.”
In February and March, 2025, Woodson is leading two winter wellness workshops in collaboration with Bartram’s Garden on boosting immunity and healing dry skin through diet.
Woodson is also author of Delicious & Nutritious, a children’s book series that’s inspired by her own family. They’re a collection of stories and corresponding activity books. Woodson says, “The initial book, ‘The Princess of Picky Eating Tries New Foods,’ is based on my middle child. She is the princess of picky eating. When she was 2 or 3 (she’s 11 now), she stopped eating all the foods that she used to eat and ate well prior to that. I thought, ‘This is insane. I have two degrees in nutrition and I can’t get my kid to eat.’ Then, I thought, ‘I should write a kids book.’ It was one of those silly things you say. Flash forward, I am homeschooling during the pandemic and some of my friends had written children’s books. There was this free masters class happening on Facebook, so I joined. Nothing to lose. I was blown away by how, if you have the blueprint, you can do this. I also knew, since it was about one of my children, that it would be a series where each of my children would be featured. So, I still owe my son a book. It’s written, but still has to be edited and illustrated. I love it. It’s another touch point to begin the discussion about nutrition and it’s another way for children to make a difference in the world. They see my kids, and I can let them know that they can be authors as well.”
In viewing food as medicine, the winter months call for an extra dose of protection and healing. Woodson’s cold month go-tos are soups, stews and spices.
“For one, soup and stew is warming and comforting. There’s nothing like having something warm. It makes you feel safe and secure. It’s also an easy way to get in lots of vegetables and plant foods like beans. You’re adding more nutrient density to prevent micronutrient deficiencies and you’re increasing fiber for blood sugar and cholesterol. Spices are kitchen medicines. We just think they taste good, but so many spices have antimicrobial properties. My two favorites to include if you’re in a pickle are rosemary and thyme. Thyme is top-tier for anything affecting your lungs, even if you just put it in a cup with hot water and drink it like tea.”
Woodson’s vision for the future is bright. Look to her for practical and creative wellness ideas, including adding fresh, new things to our plate. Woodson says she’s on a mission to get people to eat more flowers. “Flowers are powerhouses, specifically in antioxidants, that people aren’t eating. They promote health and just bring more joy and beauty, like a flower in your salad or a sprinkling of petals on baked goods.”
Woodson is also inspired by the progress she’s seeing in food production on a local level, with community gardens popping up throughout Philadelphia.
“I’m also excited to hear more people ready and willing to receive all this information,” she says. “I love hearing about food as medicine more, and using the individual components of food to heal yourself and be strategic with that. I’m excited to see food as medicine on a community level to actually get prescriptions of food for treatment. Like if we are sick, getting produce for your health. I know that’s an emergent thing and I’m excited to be included in that movement.”
To learn more about Stacey Woodson, her work and her books, check out her website and Instagram page.
- Photos of Stacey Woodson: Stacey Woodson
- Flower salad photo: Bigstock
