Function Forward Nutrition

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Function Forward Nutrition Send me a message or email:
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Specializing in optimizing nutrition for mental health and mood disorders using a Functional Medicine, evidence-based approach.

*Now accepting clients in CO and MA!*

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As a dietitian who works with ADHD, anxiety, and disordered eating, I hear a LOT of people blaming themselves for things...
10/19/2026

As a dietitian who works with ADHD, anxiety, and disordered eating, I hear a LOT of people blaming themselves for things that make so much sense once we look at the bigger picture.

Struggling to eat consistently, relying on the same meals, feeling out of control around food, or knowing exactly what you should be doing but struggling to actually do it.

There are so many factors that influence our relationship with food beyond nutrition knowledge.

Executive dysfunction. Stress. Sensory sensitivities. Appetite changes. Mental exhaustion. Years of dieting. And sometimes, simply not eating enough.

One of my favorite parts of being a dietitian is helping people connect those dots.

Because when we understand WHY something is happening, we can start finding strategies that actually work for your brain, your needs, and your everyday life.

💚 Which slide resonated with you the most?

Starting an antidepressant? Let’s talk about something that often gets overlooked: how your medication can affect your r...
10/16/2026

Starting an antidepressant? Let’s talk about something that often gets overlooked: how your medication can affect your relationship with food, appetite, digestion, and nutrition. 🧠

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), including medications like Zoloft (sertraline), Lexapro (escitalopram), and Prozac (fluoxetine), can be incredibly helpful for managing depression and anxiety. But adjusting to a new medication isn’t always straightforward.

And while conversations about antidepressant side effects often focus on mood, sleep, or weight, there’s another important piece of the puzzle: how these changes affect your ability to consistently nourish yourself.

As a registered dietitian specializing in mental health nutrition, I think this deserves a much bigger place in mental healthcare.

Because when your appetite changes, your stomach feels unsettled, or your usual eating routine suddenly stops working, it can become harder to meet your nutritional needs.

And adequate nutrition still matters for energy, concentration, physical health, and overall well-being while you’re navigating medication changes.

The goal isn’t to find a diet that replaces your antidepressant or eliminates every side effect. It’s to understand what’s happening in your body, identify strategies that make eating more manageable, and know when to bring concerns to your healthcare team.

Mental healthcare and nutrition care shouldn’t exist in separate conversations. 💚

Swipe through for 5 nutrition-related considerations worth knowing when starting an SSRI.

📌 Save this for yourself or share it with someone starting antidepressant medication.

💬 What do you wish someone had told you before starting an antidepressant?

Educational only. Never stop or adjust psychiatric medication without guidance from your prescriber.

10/15/2026

ADHD eating habits can be about more than hunger.

And “dopamine eating” is a much more complicated story than social media makes it sound.

ADHD is associated with differences in reward processing, impulsivity and motivation. Food also happens to be an incredibly easy source of sensory input and reward.

Which means sometimes I’m less interested in asking:

“Why do I keep snacking?”

And more interested in:

What am I looking for right now?

Something crunchy?
Something sour?
Something cold?
Something exciting?
A break from a painfully boring task?
Food because I’m genuinely hungry?
Or a combination of all of the above?

That distinction can be really useful.

Because if you’re hungry, we can feed you.

If you’re understimulated, maybe the environment needs something too.

And if food is more appealing when it has texture, temperature, flavor or variety, we can use that information to build meals that are more satisfying instead of constantly fighting against it.

This is one of the reasons ADHD nutrition is so much more interesting than “eat more protein.”

Your relationship with food is influenced by your brain, your environment, your sensory experience, your appetite, your medication, your sleep, your access to food and a whole lot more.

Sometimes crunchy is information. 🧠

Save this if you have ADHD, or send it to the person who somehow needs a snack the second they open a spreadsheet.

10/13/2026

ADHD and eating disorders are often treated like two separate conversations in healthcare. But what happens when we fail to recognize how deeply they can intersect? 🧠

Sometimes, what gets dismissed as “typical ADHD behavior” may be masking something that deserves a closer look.

And on the flip side, eating disorder treatment that doesn’t account for neurodivergence can miss important barriers to recovery.

This is why understanding the relationship between ADHD, disordered eating, and mental health matters so much.

As a registered dietitian specializing in mental health, I want to see more conversations that connect these dots. More screening. More individualized care. More collaboration between dietitians, therapists, and psychiatric providers.

Because someone shouldn’t have to wait until their relationship with food reaches a crisis point before we start asking better questions.

💬 Have you ever felt like your ADHD and your struggles with food were treated as completely separate issues?

Save this for later or share it with someone who works in ADHD or eating disorder treatment. 💚

Somewhere along the way, we got really good at teaching people what to eat, but not nearly as good at helping them feel ...
10/12/2026

Somewhere along the way, we got really good at teaching people what to eat, but not nearly as good at helping them feel safe eating it. 🧠💛

Think about how many of us can recite nutrition advice about calories, protein, carbs, and portion sizes, yet still struggle to recognize hunger, eat without guilt, or trust ourselves around food.

And when you’ve spent years dieting, ignoring hunger cues, or labeling foods as “good” and “bad,” rebuilding that trust can take time.

As a registered dietitian specializing in nutrition and mental health, I wish we talked more about this.

Because a healthy relationship with food isn’t measured by how well you can control your appetite. It also includes flexibility, nourishment, satisfaction, and the ability to eat without constantly second-guessing yourself.

You deserve a relationship with food that leaves room for actually living your life. 🫶

What’s one thing you wish you had learned about food growing up?

10/09/2026

Have ADHD and feel exhausted ALL the time, even when you’re getting enough sleep? Your ADHD might not be the whole story. 👀

Let’s talk about ferritin, iron deficiency, and the ADHD symptoms that can overlap with low iron stores.

Because iron plays a role in brain function and dopamine signaling, researchers have been exploring the relationship between iron status and ADHD.

Does low ferritin cause ADHD? No, we don’t have evidence to support that. But iron deficiency can contribute to symptoms like fatigue and difficulty concentrating, potentially making an already challenging day feel even harder.

If you have ADHD and experience:
🧠 Persistent brain fog or fatigue
😴 Restless legs or disrupted sleep
🩸 Heavy menstrual periods
🥩 Limited intake of iron-rich foods

It may be worth talking with your healthcare provider about checking your ferritin and other iron markers.

Because having ADHD doesn’t mean every symptom you experience is necessarily caused by ADHD.

And THIS is why nutrition deserves a seat at the table in mental healthcare.

💬 Have you ever had your ferritin checked, or were you only told your iron was “normal” based on your hemoglobin?

📌 Save this for your next healthcare appointment and share it with someone who needs to hear it!

We weren’t born counting carbs.We weren’t born believing dessert had to be earned, hunger meant we lacked self-control, ...
10/07/2026

We weren’t born counting carbs.

We weren’t born believing dessert had to be earned, hunger meant we lacked self-control, or a changing body was something to fear.

And we definitely weren’t born believing that a smaller body would make us more worthy of being seen, photographed, loved, or included.

Somewhere along the way, we learned.

We learned which bodies were considered “good.” We learned to attach morality to food. We learned to second-guess hunger, criticize photos that captured incredible memories, and sometimes miss out on our actual lives because we were too busy worrying about how our bodies looked while we were living them.

That little girl didn’t look at pasta and see carbs.

She didn’t look at cake and see guilt.

She didn’t look at her body and see something that needed to be fixed.

She was hungry. She was growing. She was excited to see her friends. She wanted to travel. She wanted to grow up.

Maybe healing your relationship with food and your body isn’t about learning to love every part of yourself every second.

Maybe it starts with questioning when you learned that you weren’t allowed to.

What would your younger self say back to the way you speak to yourself now?

The blood sugar and anxiety connection gets oversimplified online, so here’s the nuance.When blood glucose truly falls t...
10/07/2026

The blood sugar and anxiety connection gets oversimplified online, so here’s the nuance.

When blood glucose truly falls too low, the body mounts a counterregulatory response designed to restore glucose availability. That response includes sympathetic nervous system activation and hormones such as glucagon, epinephrine and norepinephrine.

Some of the resulting symptoms, including tremor, palpitations and feeling anxious or nervous, overlap with symptoms we associate with anxiety.

That does not mean anxiety is caused by unstable blood sugar, that every “crash” is hypoglycemia, or that balancing your meals is an anxiety treatment.

But it does mean nutrition, medication, eating patterns and metabolic health can sometimes provide useful context when we’re trying to understand how someone feels.

And THAT is why I want dietitians included in more mental health conversations.

General nutrition education only. Individual symptoms and suspected hypoglycemia should be discussed with your healthcare team.

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