Greetings! I am Mitali Kapila, MS, RD, CLT
Your Registered Dietitian and founder/owner of Vitality Nutrition LLC in Plymouth, Michigan
My Philosophy as a Registered Dietitian:
My core philosophy centers around a holistic, personalized approach to health and healing. I follow principles of integrative Functional Medical Nutrition Therapy (IFMNT) . It integrates a variety of nutrition therapies including whole foods, tailored supplements, genetic, biochemical individualities and mind-body modalities in clinical practice. Integrative and Functional Nutrition focuses on food as medicine by using key foods and nutrients to modulate health and vitality.
What I believe:
There is a shift happening as more people realize that as a society we are over-drugged, excessively inflamed and undernourished. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 80% of chronic disease is caused by lifestyle factors such as poor nutrition. While the role of nutrition and lifestyle intervention is well-established, our medical model does not adequately help patients create health and use food as medicine. And frankly, Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) are generally not trained on how to use a ‘food is medicine’ approach in conventional dietetic training.
I worked for over 10 years in a conventional medicine setting and realized that my patients were not seeing desired results. I was only able to work with them on a very superficial “calories in versus calories out” model. There was no concept of treating the whole person and look at the biochemical individuality. This led to only short term results or no results at all. This is when I got additional training from institute of Functional Medicine (IFM)in treating patients in holistic manner by completing an intensive training called “Applying Functional Medicine in clinical Practice” (AFMCP).
I believe in working with my patients with an emphasis on nutrigenomics and biochemical individuality. The field of integrative and functional medical nutrition therapy (IFMNT) and the concept of biochemical individuality has sparked a new way of thinking about the role of nutrition in chronic disease. IFMNT provides a new lens that allows Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) such as me to work with patients using an individualized approach that is based on each person’s genetic and environmental needs.
Medicine And Nutrition
The power of nutrition goes well beyond counseling about weight. In fact, focusing solely on the connection between food and a person’s weight can lead to underestimating the role that adequate nutrition can have on every metabolic process that occurs in the body. Food impacts everything–from a person’s genes, metabolism, hormones, microbiome, and risk of disease.
At Vitality Nutrition LLC, we take an alternative approach to medicine and nutrition. Whether you are an athlete looking for improved recovery & performance or you are fighting autoimmune disease, energy deficits, hormone imbalances, digestive issues, and brain fog, please let us help. The body is designed to function well, but can be hindered by multiple factors that lead to dysfunction and finally to disease processes. We want to help you find the areas that are keeping your body systems from optimal performance. This has to be accomplished by looking at the body holistically from a functional viewpoint. Most medications are not necessarily the enemy but they are rarely the answer. Consider adding us to your healthcare team to help you find the root cause(s) of your symptoms.
What is IFMNT and Functional Medicine:
In a perfect world, we’d be able to pinpoint each client’s exact nutritional deficiencies and design an individual treatment plan based on her needs. Fortunately, that ideal treatment model is now within reach thanks to functional diagnostic medical testing.
Functional Medicine is a giant step forward in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of chronic illness. It’s a logical, cutting-edge extension of integrative medicine, made possible by new technology, nutritional research, and genetic tests that were unavailable even a decade ago.
At the root of Functional Medicine is an examination of core clinical imbalances that result from a variety of factors including diet, exercise and the way the body processes trauma.
The core clinical imbalances can include:
- oxidative stress
- nutritional imbalances
- intestinal dysfunction
- impaired detoxification
- immune/inflammatory imbalances
- endocrine imbalances
By comparing the individual’s assessments with normal physiological ranges, practitioners of Functional Medicine can pinpoint abnormalities and contributing factors to health problems, often exposing the real causes of chronic illness and degenerative disease.
Individualized treatment plans can then be developed with the goal of restoring proper cellular metabolism by reducing cumulative toxic load and oxidative stress to the body, normalizing mitochondrial respiration and ultimately reducing the signs and symptoms of chronic disease.
Based on your needs, we can have our appointments on a monthly, bi-monthly or even quarterly basis. My focus is to help people change how they view food, and make it a positive aspect of their lives! It is important to remember there is no prescription medication or medical procedure that exists or will ever exist that cures a lack of self-care and proper nourishment!!. God Bless and See you at Vitality Soon!!