What’s Functional Nutrition?
What is functional nutrition?
Ah, yes this is something I get asked often! You’ll often hear that functional nutritionists approach clients with a root cause-based approach that is patient centered.
What the heck does this mean?
Functional nutrition is an integrative, systems-based field of functional medicine that focuses on addressing the root cause of disease and optimizing individual well-being through nutrition. As a branch of functional medicine, functional nutrition incorporates this philosophy into the prescription and implementation of whole foods diets and personalized supplementation interventions.
To take this a step further, it means that when I work with a client, I look at the whole picture, person and situation at hand. It’s not an in and out appointment. I identify imbalances that typically present as symptoms which are connected to bodily systems which ultimately is your body’s way of talking, and telling us that something is off. It’s a functional nutritionist’s job to figure out why this is happening and how they can guide the client to restoring balance through nutrition.
By addressing health from a functional root-cause based approach vs. treating the symptoms like what is done with conventional medicine, we are better able to restore balance that has been lost and have better health outcomes.
How is this achieved? Through a thorough initial intake, and if absolutely necessary functional testing. From there, I create evidence based interventions that incorporate food (nutrients) and integrative lifestyle components such as stress management / self care, sleep hygeine, movement and more.
Functional and integrative interventions are not the same as standard nutritional care which broadly follow governmental nutritional guidelines for a large population aka apply a one-size-fits-all-approach to well…everyone. I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t working with the growth rate of chronic disease the United States experiences on a yearly basis.
It’s also REALLY important to understand that functional nutrition should always be personalized & evidence based to the individual. When I say personalized interventions, it will take into consideration that each person is unique in terms of their health status (are there disease diagnoses? what medications is my client on? what are the nutrient interactions from their rx? ongoing stress?) which always needs to be considered.
There is not a one-size-fits-all-approach when it comes to nutrition, and unfortunately day after day were sold this type of messaging through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. In order to achieve your own optimal health, you need customized strategies specific to you, that can be easily incorporated and sustainable over the long haul. Sorry, dieting…. you gotta go!
Key Pillars of Functional Nutrition:
Client centered
Evidence and science-based interventions that are tailored to fit into your life with ease
Takes into consideration one’s lifestyle factors; how you live, how and when you move, stress levels and so much more
Root cause-based - what is causing these symptoms, which bodily systems are being effected, and how can we address them from a nutrition and integrative lifestyle approach
That’s all for now, folks!