Unlock Your Body’s Potential with Integrative and Functional Nutrition

By Elizabeth Mosher, MS, CNS, LDN

Welcome to Mind Body Balance Nutrition!

Discover a new approach where your unique biochemistry is respected and empowered. Integrative and functional nutrition puts you at the center—addressing each person’s individuality to unlock wellness.

What Is Integrative & Functional Nutrition?

As a functional nutritionist with 13 years of private practice experience, it’s clear that personalized nutrition restores health more powerfully than any one-size-fits-all method. This approach combines evidence-based nutrition with a whole-body perspective, aiming to find and address the root causes behind symptoms.

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 influenced by nutrition and lifestyle decisions, too.

In 1993, McEwen and Stellar introduced the concept of “allostatic load,” describing how our bodies make short-term adaptations to stress, which can become harmful if that stress is never resolved. Many people carry a chronic stress load throughout their lives.

Can We Control Stress?

While we cannot always control external stressors, we do have the power to influence our internal response. Understanding the root causes of symptoms—then building a supportive lifestyle—can dramatically alter your health trajectory.

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 make lasting diet and lifestyle changes.

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.

The Power of the Autonomic Nervous System

Managing stress means respecting your autonomic nervous system (ANS). You have the ability to bring balance—avoiding chronic “allostasis” caused by a heavy allostatic load.

The vagus nerve—the body’s longest parasympathetic nerve—connects the brain with the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines. Chronic stress weakens “vagal tone” and this can impact breathing, digestion, and heart rate variability (HRV). Activities such as meditation, prayer, breathwork, singing, nature walks, and spending time with loved ones support your vagal tone, restore resilience, and set the stage for overall better health.

Whole Body Areas of Focus

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

• Mind-body connection

• Healthy digestion and microbiome

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

• Metabolic and nutritional support

• Addressing genetic SNPs to support detox 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, focusing on specific areas that match their symptoms and health goals.

Conclusion: Chart Your Path to Wellness

An integrative and functional nutrition approach prioritizes a personalized plan—addressing the underlying causes that impact your biochemistry. With the right support, you empower your body’s innate intelligence to thrive.

Question for Readers: What’s one area of your day you’d like to improve for better mind-body balance?