What are the conditions nutritionist can address?

Nutrition is the “backbone” of functional medicine. Through sustainable, healthy eating habits, we help our patients unlock vitality and experience their best lives.

Whether you’re dealing with a chronic illness or gut problems, nutrition is the place to start. Here are five health conditions treated by a local nutritionist near you.

#1. Food Allergies or Sensitivities 

It’s not normal to feel crummy all the time. Symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and headaches may be caused by food allergies or sensitivities. Instead of discovering this root cause behind health issues, many people grab a cup of coffee to wake themselves up or pop an ibuprofen to ease pain. 

A trained local nutritionist specializes in analyzing your specific body makeup, including which foods may cause inflammation or allergic reactions. While severe allergic reactions are serious conditions to be addressed, it’s perhaps most helpful to identify food sensitivities.

Food sensitivities don’t cause serious health effects in the moment. In fact, most people don’t even know they have a sensitivity! An upset stomach, acne breakout, or headache can be attributed to a variety of health problems. With these sensitivities left unchecked, many people continue to feed their bodies foods that flare up in their system.

Stacie Delucia and Isabel Milosevich, our local nutritionists, are trained in identifying food sensitivities and allergies that are holding you back from achieving true health. 

#2. Gut Health

The gut microbiome impacts every area of health: composing 75% of the immune system, absorbing nutrients from the foods we eat, and impacting mental health through the gut-brain axis.

Gut health is showing up all over mainstream media, from doctor panels to diet culture. However, functional medicine doctors have been promoting a healthy gut for years.

Most people walk around with gut imbalance. This looks like not enough “good” bacteria, too much “bad” bacteria, or unhealthy pH levels in the gut. 

When the gut isn’t functioning properly, the whole body suffers. You can expect to feel bloated, constipated, or have irritable bowel habits; experience malnutrition from not properly absorbing nutrients, and suffer from mood swings.

For a local functional nutritionist, gut health is a top priority. A local dietician like Stacie Delucia or Isabel Milosevich helps patients improve their eating habits, incorporating more nourishing foods that are packed with nutrients. When it comes to gut health, a nutritionist may advise specialized foods for gut health.

#3. Chronic Illness

Nutrition may be the key player behind a variety of chronic illnesses. For example, when a person with Celiac disease stops eating gluten, they normally experience a one-eighty shift in health symptoms. 

With other chronic illnesses, nutrition is one piece of the puzzle. Consuming high-quality carbs, proteins, fats, and micronutrients in balanced amounts reduces inflammation and gives the body the tools it needs to heal itself. With a properly functioning gut, the body is able to harness all these nutrients to reach complete healing. 

A local functional nutritionist guides this process, from assessing nutrition habits that may be impairing the body’s ability to heal to providing a healthcare plan tailored to your unique health situation. 

#4. Sustainable Weight Management

When it comes to weight loss, many people feel like they’re trapped on a hamster wheel. Most diets are unsustainable and unscientific. Even if you’re able to see results by dieting, you’re not able to maintain your new body composition. 

At some point, you complete (or give up on) your diet. But now, your hunger cues are completely skewed, and you end up gaining back a lot of the weight you lost. This makes you feel guilty and want to lose weight again, so you go back to the crash diet model that doesn’t get you anywhere. This is known as “yo-yo dieting.”

Dieting has serious complications for long-term health. In fact, it leads to higher levels of weight gain instead of weight loss. Fad diets often damage metabolism, and hormones, and contribute to mental illnesses like eating disorders. 

A functional nutritionist provides science-based guidance for eating in a way that promotes mental and physical health. Instead of prescribing to a broad meal plan (such as plain rabbit food salads), a local nutritionist examines your personal health situation, genetics, and lifestyle habits to help you make sustainable eating choices.

This approach promotes sustainable weight management instead of yo-yo or crash diets that only leave you “hangry” and hating yourself. 

#5. Learn from a Professional

Most people get their health information from influencers trying to sell them protein powder, workout plans, or group coaching services. These claims aren’t usually based in science and may actually be damaging to your physical and mental health. For example, many people online advise cutting food groups like carbs, which isn’t sustainable. Our bodies are designed to use carbs for energy!

Diet culture also takes a toll on our mental health. Many people walk around with unhealthy relationships with food and hop onto each new healthy trend.

It’s time to stop listening to random people on the internet and start learning from professionals.

Our local nutritionist, Stacie Delucia, is a registered dietician and currently completing a master’s in functional nutrition. She helps patients utilize food to achieve their best health through a scientific knowledge of nutrition, unlike other diet culture influencers out there.

Find a Local Nutritionist in Newton, MA

Five Journeys provides functional medicine and nutrition for residents of Newton, MA. If you’re looking for a local nutritionist, check out our nutrition services and meet our registered dieticians: Stacie Delucia and Isabel Milosevich.