Hello there! My name is Anna and I am a functional nutrition counselor. Perhaps the title “functional nutrition counselor” is such a non-intriguing and inane title that you won’t blink twice before taking a bite of your granola bar and checking your phone for notifications. On the other other hand, this title might have made you curious enough to ask some questions like, what is a functional nutrition counselor? Is there a difference between a functional nutrition counselor and a traditional nutrition counselor? Does this difference matter?
Before one can answer the question if there is a difference in meaning between these two titles, we must ask yet another question. That question is, what is functional nutrition? Functional nutrition is a healing approach that looks at the role that food, including herbs and supplements, and lifestyle play in an individual’s health and wellness. Functional nutrition considers food as medicine and takes a bioindividual approach to healing, honoring each client’s unique health history in the process of making health recommendations. In traditional nutrition general principles and guidelines are used to help clients work towards health. The major difference here is that the traditional nutritionist helps clients based on set nutritional guidelines and doesn’t focus on the bioindividual needs of the client in the same way. This is not to say that traditional nutritional counseling is bad. However, in a society that has become very sick and unhealthy an individual and in depth look into a client’s nutritional status needs to be considered.
In light of using food as medicine to heal the body, functional nutrition takes a careful look at health history, the role of genetics, digestion, and where inflammation might be presenting itself in the human body. In the shifting of the body’s internal environment through changes in diet and lifestyle, healing is brought about. When desired healing takes place each individual can live life more freely as God intended.
In the Bible we read in Psalm 139: 13-14, “For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb, I praise you for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works! You know me right well.”
Indeed, we have been created in the very image and likeness of our eternal God. While it is true that the whole human race has been made in God’s likeness and bears many similarities to one another, we are at the same time incredibly unique, one of a kind, and particular masterpieces of God’s creation. It is through this lens that I serve my clients, honoring their dignity and uniqueness in their identity as children of God as well as their biological individuality. When we take the time to prioritize our health and wellness by taking care of our bodies, we are more easily able to tap into our God given identity and to live more freely, give more joyfully, and love more fully.
Anna received her education and certification in functional nutrition counseling from the accredited Functional Nutrition Alliance Program and is a part of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. In addition to her certificate in nutrition counseling, Anna also has a B.A. in Pastoral Theology and a certificate in ESL. An interest that has been a common thread in all of her academic pursuits has been to empower others to become the best version of themselves in God and to live their lives to the fullest.
Comments