Functional Nutrition is the Prescription
Have you heard about the latest diet? It’s kind of like Keto, but with parts of Paleo and Atkins thrown in. There’s a whole lot of Whole30 foods you can eat, but you must take expensive herbal supplements and only drink smoothies endorsed by very thin celebrities.
Just juice for weeks at a time, or eat cabbage soup every day until you lose those 20 pounds… sounds almost believable, doesn’t it?
The ever-increasing, never lasting, often dangerous influx of fad diets seems to get bigger every year, and crazier.
Guess what: they don’t work. Why? Because they’re unsustainable. Yes, some may promise fast weight loss, a boost to your immune system, or even claim to reverse chronic health problems. But, do they meet your individual health and nutrition needs and are they realistic over the long haul?
We all want to enjoy a long healthy life, yet none of these are diets people would want to follow for the rest of their life — or should. They’re often exceedingly restrictive nutritionally, difficult to adhere to over time, a bit boring for some people’s tastes and, most troubling, many lack scientific evidence of their medical effectiveness. They could be doing you more harm than good.
Doctor Recommended, Just for You: Functional Nutrition
“At PALM Health, we take a functional medicine approach, focusing on the role of nutrition to optimize the health and well-being of each patient,” says dietitian Victoria Nieveen, RD, LDN, IFNCP. Looking at far more than just an individual’s diet, “PALM Health’s functional nutrition assessments and services examine the root causes of potential problems, identifying stressors, possible toxic burdens, underlying infections, susceptibility to diseases and other vital risk factors.”
“We find food is information for the body,” says Nieveen. “It can truly influence how our bodies handle threats to our health.” So, PALM Health patients receive a personalized, in-depth nutrition plan based on their unique lifestyle, environment, genetics, and specific health conditions and goals.
“They’re unique to YOU, not some off-the-shelf trendy diet or pill for everyone,” Nieveen adds. Often, these customized plans are used as therapeutic recommendations in conjunction with medical treatment — a breakthrough for minimizing symptoms of some conditions, such as avoiding foods that aggravate ongoing medical problems or isolating undetected allergies causing bad reactions.
How does PALM Health functional nutrition make a difference?
Most importantly, it’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle choice to improve your quality of life. PALM Health’s approach to functional nutrition is holistic, looking at the whole person, not a set of symptoms. Patients have the advantage of advanced assessments and targeted protocols with a focus on the digestive, immune, hormonal, and nervous system. Specialty lab testing for GI pathogens, hormone balance, and food sensitivities may also be recommended.
For those interested in weight management or suffering from digestive disorders, PALM Health can help make food your friend again. Providing ongoing encouragement as you work toward achieving your goals, PALM dietitians guide you through a step-by-step program to restore and optimize your digestive system for great gut health.
For all seeking preventive measures — reducing the risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions — our expert dietitians will work with you to customize a plan. And, they can recommend complementary nutritional support that promotes wellness by addressing the root cause of dysfunction in your body.
“Our goal is to give your body the tools it needs to do what it naturally can to support your health, prevent disease, and enhance performance,” Nieveen concludes. “That’s a big-picture look at each unique person, with a long-range view of their future. We want it to be a healthy one.”
