What is Functional Medicine Nutrition?: The Link Between Diet and Health

Did you know that when we eat, we are not just feeding the human in us? We are also feeding the entire microbial ecosystem that lives on and inside us. And the health and balance in this ecosystem directly impact our human well-being. The body also stores the memory of past nutritional choices through epigenetic changes determining what aspect of our human genetics will be expressed. 

Our microbiome and epigenetic programming are strongly linked to our food choices. Food is our first medicine. It can be a major foundation for creating resilience in the body and mind. Our diet provides the roots for our overall health and can even affect the health of future generations. 

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What is Functional Nutrition?

Functional Nutrition (FN) is an approach to nutrition based on the principles of addressing the root causes of illness, looking at the body as a whole, and the gut as an ecosystem. It is one foundational component of Functional Medicine used by doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, and health coaches. 

Functional Nutrition considers cultural, genetic, and lifestyle factors related to personalizing nutrition for the individual. This can include looking at activity levels, stress levels, medical history, lifestyle habits, and, in some cases, genetic testing to get more specific with tailoring nutritional needs. 

Recommendations will always center around high-quality whole foods, optimizing lifestyle for well-being, and sometimes, targeted supplementation. 

Functional nutrition aims to apply the most recent understanding of systems approaches in nutrition and eating to support healing and maintenance of well-being.

What is The Link Between Nutrition and Health?

Nutrition is foundational for health. 

This is true on many levels. Of course, appropriate levels of macronutrients (fats, protein, and carbohydrates) are needed to maintain body structures, energy levels, and biochemical processes that keep us alive. Micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients) are also critical for maintaining biochemical processes, healing, and growth. The presence of toxins, sensitivities, or allergens would also modulate the impact of a particular food, potentially leading to harm, despite having otherwise healthful properties.

In addition to thinking of nutrition as simply providing the building blocks for biochemical processes, more complex interactions affect our health on a longer-term basis through dietary choices. 

For example, dietary choices affect the makeup of our microbiome, which is the ecology of microbes that develop in the gastrointestinal tract from birth. As it turns out, the composition of this ecosystem has profound impacts on health. It is also affected by lifestyle factors, such as stress, quality of diet, and taking antibiotics. Disturbances in the gut microbiome can lead to a condition called dysbiosis and leave long-lasting effects that take time and intentional intervention to bring back into balance.

The other interaction where nutrition can change the landscape in a lasting way is through interactions with our genetic expression. Programming which genes will be "on" or "off" is called epigenetics. The specific way in which nutrition impacts genetic expression is called nutrigenomics. Through these processes, nutrition, especially in early life, can lead to lasting changes in health outcomes.

Common Functional Nutrition Medicine Labs 

In the realm of Functional Nutrition, functional labs may be used to provide additional insight into one's nutritional status, allergies or intolerances, and microbiome health. Testing may also include tests to examine environmental, stress, or genetic factors that affect the microbiome, impacting overall health.

Micronutrient Status

Testing micronutrient status is an obvious starting point when considering nutrition, but it would be particularly relevant for certain groups of people. For example, highly active individuals (athletes) or people preparing for pregnancy have additional nutritional needs, and testing can assess if those needs are being met. Also, those who have gut health issues or poor absorption would benefit from this testing since their consumed nutrients are struggling to enter the bloodstream. Additionally, those with inadequate diets, high stress, eating disorders, or chronic illnesses would gain a lot of nutritional insight from this type of testing. The Cellular Micronutrient Assay (CMA) uses the immune system's response to various nutrients to assess micronutrient status. 

Food Allergies and Intolerances

Food allergies and intolerances can damage the gut lining, leading to a leaky gut and creating systemic inflammation. There are several different facets to testing. However, food allergy and intolerance tests can be a very useful starting point for designing a personalized elimination diet for healing food allergies and the gut lining.

Microbiome Analysis

Looking at the balance of certain helpful and pathogenic microbes in the stool can provide insight into the status of the gut ecosystem. The Gut Zoomer test is a comprehensive stool analysis that assesses the makeup of the microbiome, including helpful microbes and pathogenic ones. This test also measures markers of digestion, intestinal inflammation, absorption, and gut lining integrity. 

In addition, the byproducts of the present organisms can be measured in the urine and monitored through a microbial organic acids (MOAT) test.

Pesticides

Food quality is also an important factor when linking diet to health. Pesticides likely pose health risks, and some are categorized as endocrine disruptors because of their effect on our hormonal system. Testing for pesticide and other environmental toxin exposures via the Environmental Toxins Test can give great insight into current toxic levels in the body.

Stress

Cortisol levels, especially in the morning, can provide insight into the total stress level and the current ability of the adrenal system to respond to stress. This can be tested and monitored over time with a set of saliva tests for cortisol/cortisone taken throughout one day. Prolonged or severe stress has a negative impact on the microbiome.

Genetic

Multiple options exist for testing for common genetic variants that may increase the risk of certain food sensitivities and nutrient deficiencies. This can be very helpful information to have in personalizing one's diet.

How to Use Functional Labs to Individualize Treatment for Best Health Outcomes

Any functional lab testing can provide information to target treatment for the individual, saving a lot of time and resources over simply trying different things. 

Nutrition 

Functional Nutrition emphasizes a diet based around plant-based, whole foods, rich in colorful and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, organic if possible, and low in processed foods, added sugars, and alcohol. It also may contain functional foods with specifically anti-inflammatory qualities, such as ginger, turmeric, and garlic. This base of a diet can then be tailored to an individual's needs by removing any personal food allergies and sensitivities. 

Nutrition can also be used to support a detoxification program to reduce toxic exposures. Adequate fiber helps to keep your bowels moving for healthy elimination and can also help maintain a healthy microbiome. Fiber also binds to processed toxins to reduce reabsorption. Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale, and cauliflower, are rich in sulfur and particularly helpful for liver detoxification. 

An anti-inflammatory diet, such as the above diet, is also beneficial for stress reduction. In addition, an adequate intake of foods rich in magnesium, such as dark leafy greens, helps manage stress.

Nutritional personalization based on genetic testing is a topic known as Nutrigenomics. Based on the results from DNA testing, nutrition can be tailored to each individual. 

Supplements & Herbs

Herbs and supplements can support healing in the context of functional nutrition. 

Low Micronutrient Status

Herbs may be supportive when dietary intake may be inadequate due to poor appetite or nausea. Peppermint and ginger can be taken as a tea, and both are great for appetite and nausea. Herbal bitters can be taken as a tincture before meals to help stimulate gastric juices, increasing appetite and preparing the body for digestion. Lastly, cannabis may be considered, usually for more severe cases. 

Supplements may be necessary in more severe cases of low micronutrient status. Good quality supplements that supply more than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of depleted nutrients would be a good starting place if indicated. This could be in either capsule or powder/liquid form.

If micronutrient status is low in the presence of other indicators of poor gut health/poor absorption, herbs and supplements focused on gut healing, as below, should be included.

Food Allergies/Intolerances

Mostly the treatment for food allergies will be to remove the foods for a period of time to allow healing to occur. Lotus seed powder as a prebiotic appears to be able to support the healing of food allergies. Including gut healing support makes sense in many cases as well.

Gut Health (Microbiome)

Turmeric (curcumin) is often included in gut-healing herbal formulas for its anti-inflammatory properties and positive interactions with the microbiome. Foods rich in probiotics, such as fermented foods, and prebiotics, such as bananas, garlic, onions, and lotus, will promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. L-glutamine is often used as a powder to support the healing of damaged gut mucosa. 

Environmental Toxins

If labs show an elevated level of environmental toxins, herbs and supplements can be a part of a detoxification protocol. Glutathione is important for detoxifying many substances, and low levels are shown to increase with the supplementation of N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC). This is generally dosed in capsules at 600 mg one to three times daily. Activated charcoal and chlorella can also serve as binders, binding toxins in the gut that the liver has processed and removed so they are not reabsorbed. 

Stress Management

Lifestyle is generally the most potent place to modify stress effects. However, some herbs and supplements can be supportive, especially if used during unavoidably stressful times and not long-term in place of lifestyle shifts. If daily cortisol curves suggest impaired stress responses, then adaptogenic herbs are classically used. Adaptogens include Rhodiola, Ashwagandha, Ginseng, and Eleuthero. These herbs have been shown to help fortify the body and mind against stress. 

Some common calming herbs, especially helpful for nighttime, include lavender (often as aromatherapy in form of essential oil), passionflower (often taken as a tea, tincture or in capsules multiple times daily) and valerian (taken as a capsule before bed can help release tension to sleep well).

Magnesium and B Vitamins are particularly important for stress management and may be taken as supplements. 

Genetic Factors 

The breadth of genetic factors tested for is beyond the scope of this discussion. But nutritional supplements would be helpful for individuals with specific genetic variants that increase one's need for particular nutrients.

Summary

Functional nutrition is a crucial cornerstone in the practice of functional medicine. The link between diet and health is clear. Sometimes the ecosystem inside us is disrupted, which is a common root cause of further health decline if not attended to. However, bringing it back into balance can have a major impact on future disease risk and healing from current conditions.

Let your food be your medicine.