Functional Nutritionist
Functional Nutritionist Can Help You Achieve Balance, Restore Health & Well-Being
What is functional nutrition?
Functional Nutrition: Background
The Functional Nutrition approach derives from Functional Medicine–a method that “determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual.” (The Institute For Functional Medicine)
Simply put, Functional Nutrition is a framework whereby the client (or patient) works closely together with the health practitioner, namely a functional nutritionist, to achieve optimum health through various nutritional interventions.
The key component of the approach is the focus on the person rather than the disease.
Functional nutrition is:
✓ fully personalized
✓ client-centred
✓ science-based
✓ concerned with biological systems
✓ involves the analysis of symptoms to address primary health problems
✓ centres around the root cause of dysfunction
✓ focused on prevention
✓ designed to correct imbalances
✓ includes an educational component
✓ may involve functional testing
What does a functional nutritionist do?
Functional Nutrition: It Starts With High-Quality Food
A nutritionist who uses the functional medicine approach effectively uses high quality, wholesome, nutritious foods, and takes an integrated approach, viewing the health and well-being of a person as a whole.
Functional Nutrition: Gut Health
Furthermore, a great deal of emphasis is placed on gut health.
Because much of our immune system is located in the gut, it is vital to ensure it functions properly to avoid inflammation, risk of infections, hormonal imbalances, various auto-immune diseases and much more.
Counselling Sessions with a Functional Nutritionist
During nutritional counselling sessions with a functional nutrition practitioner, each person is examined on an individual basis in an attempt to get to the cause of the given dysfunction(s).
To do so, the practitioner performs a comprehensive analysis of the person’s:
✓ health and family history
✓ medication and supplements
✓ previous medical testing
✓ eating habits (diet)
✓ lifestyle (stress, sleep, exercise)
✓ environment
✓ physical state
✓ mental state
✓ emotional state
Functional Nutrition Interventions:
1. Nutrition & lifestyle
Once the underlying causes of the given imbalance or dysfunction are determined, the practitioner uses a variety of highly personalized nutritional and lifestyle interventions to improve the overall health and well-being of the person.
2. Personalized meal plan
Frequently, the nutritional interventions include the creation of a thorough, personalized meal plan based on the client’s food preferences, sensitivities, lifestyle, cultural or religious restrictions, and of course, budget.
3. Ongoing support & accountability
During the process of working with a Functional Nutritionist clients receive completely customized support, ongoing adjustments, specific recommendations, useful strategies and accountability.
Functional Nutritionist
Our Functional Nutritionist in Toronto
JM Nutrition‘s Vanessa Phillips, BSc, MSc, is a Clinical Nutritionist and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner who uses a Functional Medicine approach.
Furthermore, Vanessa is a graduate of the Middlesex University in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the Institute For Functional Medicine.
As a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Functional Nutritionist, Vanessa has over 11 years of experience helping clients manage various health conditions and nutrition-related concerns.
Vanessa’s passion, dedication and highly educational counselling continue to receive outstanding reviews from her many clients.
Why Work With Our Functional Nutritionist?
Clients from all walks of life from the Toronto area and beyond enlist the help of our functional nutritionist, Vanessa Phillips, for many reasons:
Individualized counselling with a focus on functional nutrition
Realistic, flexible & supportive approach throughout the process
Customized meal plans based on your goals, lifestyle & budget
Digestive health support
Weight management
Stress & adrenal fatigue management
Correction of hormonal imbalances via nutritional interventions & supplementation
Nutritional interventions for PCOS & other women's health issues
Blood sugar regulation
Natural supplementation advice & recommendations
Functional nutrition for athletes
Food intolerances, allergies & therapeutic diets
Neurolinguistic programming to help reach desired goals
Test requisitions & analyses
Referrals to other health practitioners (e.g., Naturopathic Doctor)
Valuable tips, guidelines, tools & resources
Exceptional client service
In-Person Appointments
You can book nutritional counselling sessions with our nutritionist in Toronto at our office, which is located in Downtown Toronto, adjacent to Rosedale, at the corner of Bloor Street East and Sherbourne Street.
Virtual Appointments
For your health, safety and convenience Vanessa also conducts nutritional counselling appointments virtually using numerous videoconferencing platforms:
Have a question about functional nutrition or our functional nutritionist?
Contact us for a no-obligation phone consultation during which we can:
✓ outline how the process works
✓ discuss your goal(s)
✓ explain how billing and pricing work
✓ address concerns about insurance, if any
✓ answer any other questions