functional nutrition
Nutritional Therapy is an individual-centred approach to healthcare that employs assessment and intervention using nutritional, lifestyle-based and related health sciences. This assists the individual to optimise their physiological, emotional, cognitive and physical function.
A series of web-like interconnections controls the way your body uses vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates, and fats for all your body functions. Amino acids, for example, are the building blocks of protein and are used to produce hormones, skin, and bone. For your biochemistry to function properly, your body requires the right amounts and proportions of nutrients. The amount of a certain nutrient the average person requires may not be the optimal amount you need for good health. This depends on circumstances unique to you. That is why it’s no good to take any old vitamin supplement before you know whether it’s suited to your individual needs.
External factors such as diet, over-the-counter drugs or pollution affect each of us differently depending on the genetic predisposition to health and disease of each of our body systems. Other internal factors such as our experiences, attitude to life, our beliefs, and whether we’re stressed or not can also have a profound effect on our wellbeing.
Functional Nutrition provides an approach to understanding the interconnections between what is going on around you, i.e. the environmental or external factors, and what is going on inside you, enabling your Nutritional Therapist to design a personalised programme that targets your individual needs as opposed to a “one size fits all” type of programme merely based on your symptoms.