The Need for Guidance in Navigating the Science of Nutrition with Kathie Swift

Kathie Swift,  is the co-founder of the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, a comprehensive, online educational program on functional medicine.

Kathie has held many diverse positions throughout her career. Notable in her dietetic career, she served as the Education Director for the Center for Mind Body Medicine’s highly acclaimed “Food As Medicine” professional training program for two decades.

She has pioneered innovative nutrition programs at Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center. She also serves on numerous advisory boards including 3×4 Genetics, and the Integrative Healthcare Symposium and Integrative Medicine.

She has authored and co-authored several medical textbooks, has been a guest in numerous health and nutrition conferences, and has been interviewed in hundreds of articles, both in the US and abroad.

For her many years of service and dedication to advancing the field of integrative and functional medicine, Kathie received the first Visionary Leadership Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine Dietetic Practice Group.

Kathie has been dubbed as “the mother of integrative and functional nutrition” by thought leaders in the field and has been recognized by Today’s Dietitian as “a dietitian making a difference”.

She maintains a heart-core approach to educating health care professionals, and teaches her students how to create vibrant, nourishing lives for themselves and their clients by combining the best of modern nutritional science, integrative and functional medicine, mind body modalities, and ancient healing practices.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Kathie’s transitional journey on nutritional medicine borne from a personal health crisis
• The STAIN heuristic
• Her work with the Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine group
• Kathie’s view on the state of nutrition today, and of being a clinician in this area
• The need for guidance in navigating the science of nutrition
• The “Food As Medicine” movement
• Major gaps in the conventional dietetics education
• What gave Kathie the impetus to launch a formal online training program in integrative and functional nutrition
• Her advice for practitioners and health professionals
• The need for specialization and growing forward
• The importance of having genetic data in nutrition therapy