What is Functional Nutrition?
Functional and holistic nutrition
Growing up, Ross loved everything there was to love about food. Despite his love for eating and cooking, ever since he was born, food didn’t love him back.
Food caused many digestive and gastrointestinal issues for most of his life. Doctors tried to help, but the medications and treatments offered never provided any lasting relief. As do many with chronic illnesses, he learned to just live with the discomfort, pain, and symptoms, managing them as best he could.
After attending the University of Colorado, Ross persued his passion for food and cooking, enrolling in culinary school at The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. After completion, he moved back to Chicago and spend the next 7 years working at bakeries, restaurants and catering companies.
For the first 26 years of his life, he suffered from a dozen gastrointestinal and digestive issues. He spent his childhood in and out of doctors’ and specialists’ offices. He was put on medications, pharmaceuticals, treatment plans, and went through many procedures and scopes to try and remedy his GI issues. When nothing helped, he figured this was just the way it was meant to be. He continued on with his life, trying to enjoy it as much as possible, despite constantly dealing with stomach discomfort, pain, and digestive issues.
He left Chicago at 18, moving to Boulder, CO to attend the University of Colorado. His passion for food e followed his passion for food and cooking, enrolling in culinary school at The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. For the next 7 years he worked at bakeries, restaurants and catering companies.
He developed an expertise in recipe adaptation and development, catering to those with dietary restrictions, converting and creating recipes to fit any dietary needs like gluten free, dairy free, egg free, paleo, ketogenic, vegetarian, vegan, kosher etc.
He loves food, but food did NOT love him back.
Despite his love for food, for the majority of his life, he dealt with severe gastrointestinal and digestive issues.
He experienced first-hand the ways functional medicine and holistic nutrition relieved him of his persistent and debilitating stomach issues.
A science-based realist, he is always searching for the truth.
he wanted to learn HOW and WHY things like diet, lifestyle changes, and supplements worked when medications, pharmaceuticals, and medical procedures failed.
His relationship with food was a love/hate one. He loved food, but food did not love him back. Plagued by debilitating gastrointestinal issues, he spent years trying to find answers. When modern medicine couldn’t provide him the relief and answers he was looking for, he took things into his own hands.
He started experimenting with his diet and discovered certain foods exacerbated his digestive issues. Cutting them out relieved him of so much distress.
For the first time in his life, he felt there was hope in actually reversing his lifelong digestive issues and stomach pain. Always wanting to know the “WHY” and “HOW”, he started researching the GI tract and the metabolism, which led him to the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado.
Completing his education at NTI he came to the realization that modern medicine focuses primarily on symptom relief. He wasn’t satisfied with just symptom relief. He wanted to find out what was happening to his stomach. He wanted to know the ROOT CAUSE of his health issues.
Ross is a science-based realist, always looking for the truth. Functional and holistic nutrition held the key to those questions.
Balance is the goal when it comes to holistic health.
His childhood was spent in and out of doctors and specialists offices. Modern medicine viewed his stomach issues as a list of symptoms- “bloating” “discomfort after eating” “digestive distress” “acid reflux”. Modern medicine treats symptoms. He was met with prescriptions. Procedures. Scopes. Some things helped temporarily but most didn’t do anything.
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After figuring out the ROOT CAUSE of his issues, he’s dedicated his life to helping others find answers to their own health issues.
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His biggest drive in life: helping others find answers, especially regarding their health.
Functional nutrition passionate, empathetic, kind To learn more about his personal health journey, click HERE.
When not in the kitchen, you can find him hiking and camping in the Colorado Rockies, exploring the beautiful state of Colorado, and soaking up the sun.
This all started due to a lifetime of health issues.
From 0 to 21 years old Ross suffered from debilitating gastrointestinal stomach issues. Doctors and specialists never found permeant solutions, so he took his health into his own hands. In 2016 he moved to Denver, Colorado to attend the Nutrition Therapy Institute, hoping to find answers. His education at NTI taught him about the intricate innerworkings of the digestive tract and complicated mechanisms of the metabolism.
Holistic nutrition opened his eyes to how the entire body is a complicated and connected system all functioning together.
Balance is the goal when it comes to health. His stomach issues were seen as symptoms- bloating, pain, discomfort after eating, digestive distress, acid reflux. He was met with prescriptions to help with symptoms. Some helped, others didn’t.
After completing his education at NTI he realized that modern medicine focuses primarily on symptom relief. He wasn’t satisfied with just symptom relief. He wanted to find out what was happening to his stomach. He wanted to know the ROOT CAUSE of his health issues.