What Is Functional Nutrition?
The term nutrition encompasses so many concepts, ideologies, and theories that it can feel difficult to keep up with what’s right, what’s wrong, or what’s the latest trend. With nutrition science ever changing and evolving, we look to experts to tell us what to include and what to avoid in our diets.
There are indeed foundational nutrition concepts that can benefit us all – less refined carbohydrates, less processed foods, and more focus on real, whole foods. But contrary to what the diet industry often asks us to believe, when it comes to the “best diet” for everyone, it doesn’t exist. And here’s why: To honor your bio-individuality – the unique qualities that make up you and only you – the foods you eat, as well as your lifestyle practices, will look different from everyone else’s.
Your bio-individuality determines your nutritional needs from one day to the next and during different phases of your life. By listening to what your body needs and wants, you’ll be better able to nourish yourself with the foods that work for you, rather than everyone on your Instagram feed. So how do you kick off this process of figuring out the foods that work – and don’t work – for you? That’s where functional nutrition comes in.
What is functional nutrition?
Functional nutrition is the holistic approach to diet, taking into consideration one’s lifestyle factors that could affect their food choices, such as activity levels, environment, or the presence of chronic disease. You may be wondering how this is different from standard nutrition practice, but the key is in the holistic approach.
Standard nutrition focuses on the nutritional facts, such as a food or food group’s ability to promote or damage health (whether it’s “good” or “bad” for you). Functional nutrition looks at these facts, too, but in the context of an individual’s physiological makeup and how they live, such as how often they move, the quality of their relationships, and their stress level. Essentially, just because a food or food group has been demonstrated as being “good for you,” it doesn’t mean it’s good for you — functional nutrition means one size doesn’t fit all!
Functional nutrition vs. standard nutrition
The practice of functional nutrition is similar to that of functional medicine, though the terms are not meant to be used interchangeably. Functional medicine is a patient-centered practice rather than a disease-centered practice. It focuses on the body as a whole ecosystem, and the main goal is to address the root cause of symptoms, such as gastrointestinal distress, skin issues, and brain fog. These symptoms can be clues to potential food-related health issues, such as nutritional deficiencies, food sensitivities, or food allergies.
Practicing functional nutrition mirrors the functional medicine approach where “food is medicine.” Food has the power to heal or harm, and the practice of functional nutrition centers around the individual. Standard nutrition, in contrast, broadly follows nutritional guidelines created for an entire population.
My name is Stephanie Chan, a Functional Nutritional Coach and License Massage Therapist. I specialize in helping women be energized, healthy & fit.