Functional nutrition focuses on dietary habits, but it also considers the other components of health and whether food can be a part of the root cause. Functional nutrition takes this perspective one step further by highlighting the ways that food is a fundamental component of health. Functional medicine is a broad medical approach that treats health problems as a part of the whole interconnected body system. While the terms “functional medicine” and “functional nutrition” are often used interchangeably, they aren’t technically the same. Functional Medicine Versus Functional Nutrition Instead, it is a highly customizable holistic health perspective that takes your unique situation into account to support healing from the cellular level. By considering the impacts of seemingly unrelated factors on health, functional nutritionists will put together a holistic health plan that takes every aspect of health into consideration.įor these reasons, functional nutrition is never one-size-fits-all. While standard healthcare will try to suppress these symptoms with medication, functional nutrition and functional medicine see them as clues for understanding the underlying issues within the body. With functional nutrition, symptoms are seen as clues for managing your primary health issues, whether they are related to diet, illnesses, medications, lifestyle factors, exposure to toxins, antibiotic use, or other factors. This strategy seeks to look at the big picture of health by restoring physiological functioning. It aligns with the ideologies of functional medicine.įunctional medicine follows an approach to health care that takes into consideration how interrelated every part of the body is. What is Functional Nutrition?įunctional nutrition is the practice of considering every aspect of health, diet, and overall lifestyle when giving nutrition recommendations. If you’re sick of struggling to sift through contradictory advice about optimal eating plans, it’s time to adopt a different framework-functional nutrition.īut what is functional nutrition? And how can you put it into practice? The answer may not be as complicated as you think. In reality, most of us are more confused than ever. Modern nutrition science likes to pretend that it simplifies the age-old question of what’s for dinner.