What functional nutrition actually means (and what it doesn’t)
You’ve probably heard the term functional nutrition used frequently, especially online, but it’s often unclear what it means in real clinical practice.
Many of the people I work with come to me feeling frustrated. They’ve seen multiple providers, tried various recommendations, and may even have a diagnosis, but still don’t feel well. Often, their labs are “normal,” yet their symptoms persist. That disconnect alone can feel invalidating.
When I describe my work as functional nutrition, I’m referring to the way I approach assessment and care. I view each person as an individual with their own physiology, history, and set of influencing factors. Rather than focusing only on isolated symptoms, I look for patterns over time and ask why those symptoms may be occurring in the first place. I look at the person as a whole instead of focusing on individual symptoms; each symptom is a clue.
In conventional healthcare, symptoms are often grouped into diagnostic categories. These frameworks are essential for identifying disease, assessing risk, and guiding treatment, but they don’t always explain how someone feels day to day or why progress can feel slow or incomplete. My role as a dietitian is not to replace medical care, but to help bridge that gap by zooming out and considering how nutrition, stress, lifestyle, and physiology interact. This is often the piece missing in our modern healthcare model. Nutrition is very commonly overlooked when a person’s overall health or labs are being analyzed.
It’s also understandable why people feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of “solutions” marketed to them. We live in a world full of supplements, protocols, and quick fixes that promise to resolve complex issues rapidly. When symptoms persist, it’s easy to feel desperate for answers. In my work, I take a more measured approach. Nutrition always comes first, and tools like supplements or functional testing are used thoughtfully, not as magic cures, but as support when they truly make sense. These tools help paint a more complete picture.
At its core, functional nutrition is about curiosity, context, and individualized care. It’s about acknowledging patient frustration, respecting the value of modern medicine, and using clinical reasoning to better understand the why behind what’s happening in the body.
