About Jan Katzen

Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, Jan and Prof. Michael Crawford at The Generating Healthy Brains Conference.

Jan Katzen, AMI, CFP, CN has studied nutrition and health under the guidance of professor Michael Crawford, expert in brain chemistry and human nutrition. She interned with Nim Barnes, founder of Foresight Preconceptual Care (Bognor Regis, England).

She is a former AMI (Association Montessori lnternationale) educator and publishes scientific articles and books on nutrition with a focus on preconception health, brain and child development. Jan has served on advisory boards of The McGarrison Society, The Mother and Child Foundation (UK), The Montessori Education for Autism Foundation (UK), and Epap nutritionals in South Africa.

Jan maintains a clinical and private practice at Melmed Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Click here to learn more.
She specializes in nutrition evaluation and resolution plans for couples planning pregnancy, adults, adolescents (anxiety, depression), and families of children with neurodevelopmental, learning, behavioral, and emotional challenges. Telephone or Skype consultations available.

Jan is the nutrition instructional guide for The Center for Guided Montessori Studies teacher training program and consults with schools to review food preparation and meal/snack atdequacy programs. She is available for continuing education courses for educators and health professionals.

Jan loves hiking, playing and composing music on the piano, and searching out and promoting local farmer’s markets and restaurants serving pasture fed animals, wild fish, and organic fare from local purveyors. She also loves nutritional education and lecturing to groups because it gives her an opportunity to talk about her favorite subject – Food!

An Aside From Jan:

All of the current nutritional research points in the same conclusive direction; specific nutrients are required throughout the life-span to support mental health. Deficiencies may prevent conception, compromise the neurological development of the embryo and fetus, diminish a child’s ability to learn, and impair future mental well-being.

Health care reform begins with the next couple planning for pregnancy. It is of paramount importance that families and educational communities become familiar with nutrients in the foods we eat and understand how to “feed the brain,” not just the body.

I dedicate the following publication to my research director, Professor Michael Crawford. His brilliant, tireless scientific investigation has pioneered today’s developmental nutritional paradigm – docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as the evolutionary building block and staple of the human brain.

Nutr Health. 2007;19(1-2):85-102.

The Declaration of Nutrition, Health, and Intelligence for the Child-to-be

Jan Katzen, AMI, CFP, CN

The Declaration of Nutrition, Health, and Intelligence for the Child-to-be is an urgent cry from the unborn child for a life-span of nutrients for physical and mental wellness. It is a proclamation of paramount importance for everyone involved in child development: parents, health professionals, teachers, government agencies, all producers of food — and children, so they may learn how to feed themselves well.