Live coverage of the Institute for Functional Medicine Annual International Conference 2020

What to eat depends on individual

Nutrition is uniquely positioned for potential confusion, said Chris Gardner, PhD, during the virtual 2020 Institute for Functional Medicine Annual International Conference. There are dozens of dietary patterns that affect health outcomes in different ways, Gardner said, including mortality risk, physiology and metabolism, and risk factors for disease. Nutrition studies are not often end-point studies and highlight one aspect of physiology or metabolism and one molecule or food item. On top of that, there are different doses, sources, and durations, as well as population, including age, gender, race, ethnicity, and health and disease status, that can all impact the results or reactions to different nutrients, molecules, and food groups. In short, nutrition is uniquely complex, he said, and practitioners must embrace that.

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