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Hippocrates — who lived almost 2,500 years ago — is credited with saying, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” Was this famed Greek physician onto something?
In this post we explore “food as medicine” and hemp’s and CBD’s place in this fascinating wellness tableau.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To really get the rest of this article, it’s important that we’re working from a common understanding of what functional nutrition is.
Functional nutrition is a part of functional wellness or functional medicine. This brand of medicine focuses on trying to discern and alleviate root causes of illnesses as opposed to just treating symptoms. It takes into account an individual’s unique biology, environment, lifestyle, and more to diagnose illnesses and treat a person.(1) It’s truly a different mindset than that of standard Western medical approach.
Functional medicine also looks at other dimensions of wellness — like exercise, social, occupational, etc. Nutrition is just one slice of the pie.
The Institute for Integrative Nutrition defines functional nutrition as “the holistic approach to diet, taking into consideration one's lifestyle factors that could affect their food choices, such as activity levels, environment, or the presence of chronic disease.”(2) They distinguish it from traditional nutrition — which focuses more on absolutes related to a food’s nutrition facts (e.g., Is Food X good or bad for a person?) — as being more personalized. Instead of fixating on the food, it looks at how the food impacts you as a unique individual.
Viewing nutrition in this manner opens up the potential to leverage nutrition as more than just a means of getting nourishment. It suggests that nutrition can be used to bring about certain health outcomes. Moreover, it advocates that context matters a lot because each person is different.
So, in a nutshell, functional nutrition is a methodology that tries to harness the things you eat and drink to improve your personal wellness.
You can thank the Japanese for the concept of functional foods. They developed this framework in the 1980s to help Japanese people become healthier.(3)
Functional foods are ones that have potential to provide greater health benefit than just basic nutrition. Yes, with the right implementation, most foods (like real foods, not the junk extruded out of a machine in a lab somewhere) can be functional.
These healthful foods are nutrient-dense and often eaten on their own or included as ingredients in other foods and beverages. You’ll also see foods — like juices, dairy products, and breads — fortified with additional vitamins, minerals, probiotics, fiber, and nutrients to make then into functional food.
Chew on these examples of functional foods:
Note: For the purposes of discussion in this post, functional foods includes foods, drinks, seasonings, nutraceuticals, and dietary and other supplements (particularly when they’re added to other foods).
This is a good lead-in to the benefits of functional foods. It boils down to this — functional foods may help:
You might be wondering why you should let food play these roles rather than just swallow down a few pills or get an occasional “procedure” done. Knifing-and-forking (or strawing?) your way to better health can be optimal for a number of reasons. As compared to “regular” treatment options (which often lean heavily on drug-based therapies), the functional foods route may:
Yes, no, maybe, it depends. How’s that for e response?!
You probably realize that such a simply-stated question isn’t actually a simple question, or pegged to a simple answer.
The truth is that there are too many variables. Every person and his or her needs are different. And what works for one might be a total failure for another.
That said, there are certainly instances when applying the functional nutrition approach (as part of a healthful lifestyle) may reduce or eliminate the need for meds. Here are a couple hypothetical examples:
Other times, functional nutrition is a great way to complement standard pharmaceutical-based treatments. Functional foods may:
Our best guess is that there’ll always be a place for both functional nutrition and pharmaceuticals. And other therapeutic modalities, too. We’ll always need a panoply of treatment options to accommodate the disparate needs of diverse people.
At any rate, it’s worth discussing with your doctor how functional nutrition can support your health goals. However, because many medical school curricula are thin on nutrition education, you may need to work with your care provider — e.g., do additional research or get a referral to a nutritionist — to find the right info for your situation.(7)
The FDA doesn’t have a formal definition of the terms functional nutrition or functional foods.
Regardless, the FDA reigns over functional foods, despite there being no explicit legislation on the matter. Their authority comes from the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This give the FDA the power to regulate the production and marketing — including labeling — of functional foods as if they were “regular” foods.
Food producers must follow the FDA’s established nutrition information and package label guidelines. But, within the wingspan of the FDA rules, there’s still a lot of room for food producers to make health-related claims.(8)
You didn’t think we’d get through this article without mentioning hemp and CBD did you? Not a chance!
Hemp and CBD definitely have a foothold in the functional wellness world. Luck you.
We’ve done several posts extolling the awesomeness that is hemp. But what qualifies it as a functional food or functional ingredient in other food products?
A lot, actually.
First, hemp seeds can be turned into a wide variety of food items: protein powder, oil, non-dairy milk alternative…. The list goes on. Not to mention that hemp is easy to include in other food products (e.g., vegan burgers, granola bars, pasta sauces, etc.) Their flexibility makes them more useable and accessible.
Second, hemp is incredibly nutritious. Especially for plant-based eaters. It’s a superb source of protein, essential fatty acids, amino acids, fiber, and other nutrients. It’s low in harmful saturated and trans fats.
These two points come together to make hemp shine as a wellness-encouraging food. Hemp — as a food — has been linked to positive wellness outcomes like:
To learn more about the functional prowess of hemp, check out these easy readers:
If you’re a regular visitor to our blog, you know we sing the praises of CBD up one side and down the other. And you can do a deep dive into our library to get an in-the-weeds detailed education on the benefits of hemp-CBD oil.
But for here and now, suffice it to say that CBD has earned its position amongst other functional wellness substances. CBD oil — especially when tag-teaming with other cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and other otherwise-unsung phytocompounds — is a functional wellness hero.
On its own, say as a CBD tincture you squirt under your tongue or as a CBD softgel you gulp down with your morning brew, CBD could result in mental and physical health benefits. Topping the roster of CBD’s evidence-backed wellness wins:(9)
Not shabby at all!
If you’re like a lot of people, you might prefer to have your CBD in something rather than straight up. Fortunately, CBD works well as an additive to other food and beverage products. This just boosts the functionality of those eats and drinks.
Whether you’re plopping your own CBD drops into your culinary creations or buying ready-made CBD-infused products, you’ll get the advantages of the CBD on top of those of any other functional ingredients in the food or drink.
So, what kinds of munchies and sippies are rounding up their functional wellness profiles with CBD goodness? This is just a partial list to give you an idea of how pervasive CBD-infused functional foods are.
It’s not a stretch of the mind to see how adding CBD extract to your matcha chai could give you the functional bennies of the cannabidiol, the green tea, and any spices blended in.
Functional nutrition aims to use food for more than just the mere benefit of nourishing and fueling the body. This nutritional approach takes individuals and their lifestyles and health profiles into consideration when evaluating the utility and merits of a food. The goal is to harness the power of food to prevent, manage, and treat disease as well as support and boost overall wellness.
Functional foods are the vehicles that accomplish this. There are all kinds of functional foods — fruits, veggies, lentils, and so on. And, many food products — like juices and breads — are fortified with nutrients so that they become functional.
Hemp is both a functional food and a fortifying ingredient in other food items. CBD has characteristics of functional substances and is increasingly being used for its potential health benefits and added to other foods to elevate their functionality.
Ask your doctor if and how functional nutrition can play a role in your ongoing holistic care plan.
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References
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