When most people think of nutrition counseling, they imagine a standard meal plan, calorie goals, and basic advice about food groups. While these conventional approaches can be helpful for general health, they often fall short for people dealing with complex health concerns or want to optimize their health.
Functional nutrition counseling is quite different. It is a root-cause approach to healing that considers not just what you eat, but how your body uniquely responds to food due to the health of your body, your environment, lifestyle, genetics, stress, and more.
At its core, functional nutrition asks why symptoms are happening in the first place and works to correct underlying imbalances to help the person achieve optimal health and prevent disease.
Beyond Your Typical Nutrition Consult
Functional nutrition is about personalization and precision. It views the body as an interconnected system, and it recognizes that food is not just fuel, it’s information. What you eat communicates with your genes, your gut microbiome, your immune system, and your hormones. The goal is to uncover what’s out of balance in your body and develop a nutrition and lifestyle plan tailored specifically to restore balance and vitality.
At The UltraWellness Center, our licensed nutritionists have received extensive advanced training in the field of functional medicine and have many years of clinical experience. This translates to a deeply personalized approach delivering at the highest level.
The Functional Nutrition Process – What to Expect
As a nutrition client, you can expect the following:
- A Deep-Dive Intake: We have every person fill out a detailed medical and diet history followed by a consult where your nutritionist spends time truly listening to your story — your symptoms, stressors, environment, history, and goals. As part of this assessment, they also explore mental and emotional barriers that may impact your ability to make dietary and lifestyle changes, offering compassionate support and strategies to help navigate these challenges.
- Targeted Lab Testing: If your nutritionist believes that testing is appropriate, they can order advanced testing to uncover hidden imbalances and root causes of your symptoms. See below for a list of tests that our nutritionists can order and interpret.
- Personalized Nutrition & Lifestyle Plan: Based on your history and goals, you will receive a custom nutrition plan that may also include targeted supplements, stress management tools, exercise goals, and more.
- Adjustments & Ongoing Support: If testing is ordered, results will be reviewed with your nutritionists and updates will be made to your plan based on those result. Also, we understand that healing isn’t linear. The body and what it needs changes over time based on age, lifestyle, and circumstances. This is why we monitor your progress and help support your body’s evolving needs.
Click here for a step-by-step view of our process.
How We Identify What Your Body Needs
To truly personalize care, we can go beyond standard lab work and use advanced specialty testing to gather a clearer picture of your health. These tests can help identify hidden imbalances, deficiencies, sensitivities, and genetic predispositions that influence your symptoms and overall well-being. Some specialty tests our nutritionists can order include:
- Nutritional testing: Comprehensive nutrient and metabolic profiles that that looks at biomarkers that assesses vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, oxidative stress markers, gut health, and detoxification capacity.
- Food Sensitivity: Assessments for food sensitivities such as gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and and other food immune reactivities.
- Leaky Gut testing: Intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”) and autoimmune triggers can be tested via the blood.
- Genetics testing: Cutting-edge DNA tests that analyze key genetic markers affecting metabolism, inflammation, detoxification, hormone balance, cognition, fitness, how your body responds to your diet, supplements, and lifestyle.
- Omega-3 testing: Measures the levels of essential omega-3 fatty acids in your blood, helping us optimize anti-inflammatory support and cardiovascular health.
- Cardiovascular Risk testing: Advanced lipid and cardiovascular risk testing that goes beyond a standard cholesterol panel, providing insight into inflammation, metabolism, and blood sugar regulation.
- And more.
*It’s important to note that our nutritionists are not licensed to diagnose or treat medical conditions. While they can review certain outside lab results, they may not be able to interpret all findings, as some may fall outside their area of expertise or professional scope. They may also recommend you discuss certain test findings with your medical provider.
Who Can Benefit from Functional Nutrition?
Almost anyone can benefit from functional nutrition guidance, especially if you are simply confused or overwhelmed by what type of eating pattern is best for you. However, it is an especially powerful tool for anyone dealing with:
- Chronic digestive issues (bloating, irregular bowel movements, acid reflux, etc.)
- Food sensitivities and intolerances
- Autoimmune conditions
- Skin concerns (acne, eczema, psoriasis)
- Weight loss resistance
- Fatigue and brain fog
- Cognitive decline
- Metabolic syndrome
- Underweight and malabsorption
- Sports optimization
- Infertility and pre/post-natal support
- General health optimization and disease prevention
The Bottom Line
If you’ve ever felt like you weren’t getting answers from conventional care or that your symptoms were being treated in isolation, functional nutrition offers a different path. By addressing the root causes of imbalance and tailoring recommendations to your unique biology, this approach can help you reclaim lasting energy, resilience, and vibrant health.
If you’re ready for a personalized, root-cause approach to your wellness, we’d love to support you on your healing journey. To schedule an appointment, please complete our new patient form: https://www.
Once we receive your submission, a member of our team will contact you to follow up.
