Optimize Your Body’s Potential with Integrative and Functional Nutrition

Elizabeth Mosher, MS, CNS, LDN

WElcome to Mind Body Balance Nutrition!

Where you can discover a new approach to your health and wellness! A place where your unique biochemistry is respected and empowered. Integrative and functional nutrition puts you at the center—as we are all biochemically unique and what may be amazing for one person may not be optimal for another.

What Is Integrative & Functional Nutrition?

Integrative and functional nutrition is a personalized whole body approach that considers the interconnectedness between the body systems and how they adapt when we are not feeling well. We identify the root causes of symptoms and imbalances and do this through a evidence- based nutritional approach that focuses of stress triggers, digestion, energy balance, genetics, environment, detoxification as well as sleep to personalize nutritional and lifestyle recommendations to help restore and optimize health and wellness.

Understanding Chronic Stress and Your Body

Our body is wired for survival. When faced with chronic stress—whether psychological or physiological—systems adapt in ways that may impact long-term health. This “stress load” isn’t just emotional; it’s also contributed to by poor nutrition and lifestyle decisions as well.

In 1993, McEwen and Stellar introduced the concept of “allostatic load,” describing how our body systems adapt to a load of stress that can come from both psychologic as well as physiologic triggers. Making short-term adaptations to stress is normal and quite healthy but when the stress load is heavy and chronic, the body systems shift to accomdate this state becoming less efficient over time.

While we cannot always control external stressors, we do have the power to influence our internal response. Understanding the root causes of symptoms—then build a supportive lifestyle—which can dramatically improve the metabolic climate for health optimization.

Creating a Supportive Environment for Health and Wellness

Respecting your body’s biochemistry means creating an environment that supports—not undermines—your daily wellness. By identifying stress triggers, you gain the ability to lower your overall stress load and create an environment that supports the optimization of your health and wellness.

Listening to your body cues helps reduce overwhelm and positively influences the autonomic nervous system, lessening the impact of external stressors and reducing inflammation and symptoms.

Personalized integrative nutrition targets key areas tailored to your unique journey:

Mind-body connection

Healthy digestion, microbiome and gut health

Cellular energy (mitochondrial support, meal timing, and blood sugar balance)

Metabolic, immune and nutritional support as needed

Addressing genetic SNPs to support detoxification and methylation if needed

Managing food and chemical sensitivities

Healthy sleep, exercise, hydration, and social bonds

Nutritional changes across life stages

Each individual’s path is unique, and areas of focus are prioritized based on need, personalization and desire for change.

Your Path to Health and Wellness

An integrative and functional nutrition approach prioritizes a personalized plan—addressing the underlying causes that impact your biochemistry. With the right support, you can empower your body’s ability to heal and optimize your health and wellness!

Question for Readers…

What’s one area of your day you’d like to improve for better health and wellness?

Citation

Fava, G.; McEwen, B., et al. “Clinical characterization of allostatic overload,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 108 (2019) 94–101, Elsevier.