{"id":18240,"date":"2018-11-06T09:20:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T09:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/functionalnutritionlab.com\/blog\/?p=603"},"modified":"2025-08-28T15:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T15:01:38","slug":"part-1-whats-functional-and-whats-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fxnutrition.com\/blog\/part-1-whats-functional-and-whats-not","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Functional and What\u2019s Not"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Functional\u2019 has become a buzzword in the health industry lately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And for good reason. Practicing functionally can help you in several ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identify the root causes of issues, so you can bring your clients to true resolution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Know a system that works all of the time, instead of using formulas that work some of the time (or chasing research and superfoods that go in and out of style)<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Relax knowing that you really do know enough to help the population you want to help, no matter who they are, and no matter your scope of practice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But just like an \u201cAll Natural\u201d label can be found on products with MSG, GMOs, hormones, pesticides, and more, the term \u2018functional\u2019, with its growing demand and appeal, is being put on products, services, and trainings that aren\u2019t<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, how are you, a hardworking practitioner who\u2019s dedicated to learning the most useful tools to help your clients, supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s functional and what\u2019s NOT<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 3 tenets of a functional practice, and unless the programs you\u2019re taking, processes you\u2019re using, and people you\u2019re following are using these tenets, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they aren\u2019t functional.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Functional Tenet #1: Root Cause Resolution<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practicing functionally means that we\u2019re not chasing symptoms. Instead we\u2019re using tools to get to the heart of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what\u2019s really going on<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, so we can bring resolution to the cause of someone\u2019s symptoms, not just squelch the symptoms alone (a \u201csolution\u201d that usually doesn\u2019t last very long).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s take two women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Symptoms include diarrhea and constipation (yes, often both!), abdominal cramps and\/or pain, bloating and intestinal gas. <\/span><b>What\u2019s not functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treating the symptoms of IBS alone, such as using enzymes or chamomile to relieve abdominal pain.<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Temporary relief? Maybe. Root cause resolution? Nope.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>What <\/b><b><i>is<\/i><\/b><b> functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paying heed to the context<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the IBS\u2014the history and environment in which the illness arose for each woman, the diet and lifestyle factors that cause the symptoms to flare, and the interventions that truly enable internal healing to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you know the context, you can confidently move in the direction of root cause resolution instead of just chasing symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Functional Tenet #2: Systems &amp; tools<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to practice tenet #1\u2014to not just <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">believe<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the powers of root cause resolution, but to truly <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">practice<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it\u2014we need to let go of seductive protocols, formulas and templates in favor of solid systems and tools. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why? <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because formulas are one-size-fits-all. And, as you know, nobody is the same as anyone else. Two people with the same symptoms, or even the same diagnosis, do not need the same remedies, because they arrived at their illness in different ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we take our example of the two women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, <\/span><b>What\u2019s not functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treating both women with the same \u201cIBS protocol\u201d without first looking at WHY they each have the symptoms they do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What is Functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When making recommendations, paying heed to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxnutrition.com\/articles\/bioindividuality-in-practice\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bioindividuality<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. To do so, we use the Functional Nutrition Matrix to determine <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">context\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">familial history of any similar patterns<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">birth context and childhood memories of diet, digestion and elimination<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">history and environment in which the signs and symptoms arose<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">presence of any other signs, symptoms, diagnosis or medications<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the factors which cause the symptoms to flare<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the interventions that have helped now or in the past<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxnutrition.com\/articles\/functional-nutrition-matrix\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Functional Nutrition Matrix <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to capture the details specific to each client allows you to see <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what\u2019s really going on<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for each of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you know what\u2019s really going on, you\u2019re no longer treating the symptom alone (which leads to short-term resolution at best), but instead, you\u2019re addressing the root causes of the person\u2019s pain point (hello sustainable results and raving fans!).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll no longer be searching for the next miracle protocol for each client. You\u2019ll have a system that works for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everyone.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Check it out:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-605\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FNA-matrix.png\" alt=\"The functional nutrition matrix by Andrea Nakayama\" width=\"712\" height=\"540\"><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Functional Tenet #3: Therapeutic Partnerships<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you bring out your tracking tools and Functional Nutrition Matrix, you need to establish a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">relationship<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with your client or patient that is going to allow you to see the connections between symptoms, find the roots, and work together in harmony toward resolution. You need to have rapport, and to practice functional empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No tool in the world is going to give you the results you want unless you\u2019ve first created a therapeutic partnership. And hold on, I\u2019m guessing this is something you think of as an \u201cof course\u201d, or \u201cyeah, I got that\u201d. Yet a therapeutic partnership isn\u2019t just about connection. It\u2019s about trust, hope, and the patient knowing that they\u2019re no longer in the weeds alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is the therapeutic partnership so important?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because your client isn\u2019t going to tell you all the juicy details you need to fill out the Functional Nutrition Matrix unless they trust you and that you can do something with the details they share.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And they\u2019re not going to fill out a Food\/Mood\/Poop Journal unless they see the real benefits of taking the effort and know you\u2019re on their side. (Looking in the toilet and describing what\u2019s in the bowl without understanding <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">? Not likely!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They probably won\u2019t follow many (or any!) of your recommendations unless they feel like you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> them, understand what <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">want, and are helping them connect the dots and make clinical associations\u2014associations like, when I stay up after 10pm working on my computer, I have increased sugar cravings the next day, or when I eat this breakfast vs. that one, I\u2019m better able to concentrate at work throughout the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The associations between nutrition, diet, and lifestyle modification are infinite when you\u2019re not stuck in the weeds and you understand the biological reasons for those correlations. And the therapeutic partnership requires being able to not just make those interconnections, but explain them to each patient in a way that resonates and yields action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">before<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you pull out your systems and tools to and start hunting for the root causes\u2026 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">must<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> create a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxnutrition.com\/articles\/therapeutic-partnership\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">therapeutic partnership<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, I know this step seems obvious. Yet you\u2019d be surprised how many practitioners are missing it. And you may be shocked that you\u2019re one of them!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tip: The way you can catch yourself missing this step is if you find yourself researching a client\u2019s symptoms or diagnosis, or creating a therapeutic plan with stages for intervention <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">before<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you even meet them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you make this connection and gain an understanding of the factors that will inspire them to make change, <\/span><b>you can then use the functional tools to deepen your therapeutic partnership<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and map the details that you uncover together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we go back to our example of the two women with IBS,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> y<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ou may want to see them both have 2 solid bowel movements each day as an indicator that your recommendations are yielding results. Yet one woman is motivated by avoiding embarrassment of public accidents. The other wants desperately to be free of pain so she can play with her grandchildren and not spend the time doubled over. These are their \u201dinspiring factors\u201d and they\u2019re <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxnutrition.com\/articles\/functional-nutrition-tip-the-truth-about-compliance\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your key to client compliance!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s NOT Functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating identical treatment plans for both women, and stressing that they need to do the work so that they can have the outcome <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you want<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013decreased inflammatory markers, diminished pain, different elimination patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What IS Functional: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remembering that your clients are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stories<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and recognizing that each individual has specific hopes and dreams that she is longing to fulfill and that her illness is keeping her from. You see, it\u2019s not just her illness that\u2019s the problem. It\u2019s what it prevents her from doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>It\u2019s not Functional Nutrition unless you\u2019re creating a Therapeutic Partnership that recognizes the entirety of the person seeking your help.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you ready to get to the root cause, use proven systems &amp; tools that work all the time, and work in therapeutic partnership with your clients? Join me and the thousands of practitioners who are changing the way we do healthcare. Your first step is easy: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/signup.fxnutrition.com\/schedule\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to chat with an Advisor about whether our Functional Nutrition immersion program is right for you.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Functional\u2019 has become a buzzword in the health industry lately. And for good reason. Practicing functionally can help you in several ways: Identify the root causes of issues, so you can bring your clients to true resolution. Know a system that works all of the time, instead of using formulas that work some of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[163,162],"class_list":["post-18240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-practices","tag-systems","tag-tools"],"_yoast_wpseo_sitemap-include":null,"_yoast_wpseo_canonical":null,"_yoast_wpseo_redirect":null,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":null,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":null,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":"[]","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":null,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":null,"_yoast_wpseo_title":"What&#x27;s Functional and What&#x27;s Not - Functional Nutrition Alliance","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"There are three primary tenets that make a practice functional: root cause resolution, the use of proven systems and tools, and working in therapeutic partnership with clients. We outline exactly what\u2019s Functional and what\u2019s not in a Functional Nutrition a","_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"functional nutrition","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.6 (Yoast SEO v25.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What&#x27;s Functional and What&#x27;s Not - Functional Nutrition Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are three primary tenets that make a practice functional: root cause resolution, the use of proven systems and tools, and working in therapeutic partnership with clients. 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