What is Functional Nutrition?

Functional Nutrition is an emerging new specialty within the field of nutrition. Just as Functional Medicine approaches the body from the perspective of treating the root cause of disease, Functional Nutrition looks at the way that food affects your body on the cellular level. Food has the ability, as it moves through your body, to effect how your cells behave and how you feel.  It also incorporates principles of functional medicine: taking a highly personalized and detailed approach, examining family history and genetics, environmental exposures, life events and any mediators that might improve or worsen your symptoms.

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, Functional Medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual. 

- Institute for Functional Medicine