Why Functional Nutrition for Coaches?
Functional Nutrition for Coaches: Helping Clients Thrive through Empowered Eating will help you expand your personal nutrition knowledge AND support clients as they turn insights into action.
What You’ll Get When You Enroll:
✔️ Up-to-date, evidence-based instruction on the gut microbiome, blood sugar regulation, inflammation, nutrient density, and more
✔️ The ONLY Functional Nutrition course designed specifically for coaches —with practical tools to apply your knowledge and elevate client outcomes
✔️ Learn from 23 expert educators in functional nutrition and medicine
✔️ Lifetime access to:
- 📚 30+ hours of fully asynchronous, self-paced content delivered via LearnWorlds
- 📝 75 educational resources (including reflection questions and handouts)
- 📤 6 handouts to share directly with clients
✔️ Earn 28 NBHWC CE credits
✔️ BONUS for FMCA Grads: Earn your Functional Nutrition Specialist (FNS) credential to become FMCHC-FNS
$2,999
$1,999
Save $1,000 with code FNCOACH
FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION FOR COACHES CURRICULUM
Build a Strong Foundation in Nutrition. Backed by Science and Designed for Coaches
This in-depth curriculum blends functional medicine, nutrition science, and eating psychology to give you a well-rounded, coach-appropriate approach to client care. You’ll gain the confidence to understand what’s happening in the body, guide clients toward sustainable change, and apply evidence-based insights with practical tools that fit your coaching scope.
Essential Nutrition Topics You’ll Explore
Phytonutrients & Food Color
Use the “rainbow plate” approach to link food colors with functional benefits—from detox to cognitive support.
Coach Approach: Use the ‘rainbow plate’ approach to help clients design meals that protect against oxidative stress and support detoxification.
Gut Microbiome Health
Learn how prebiotics, fermented foods, and polyphenols promote diversity and resilience—supporting beneficial strains like Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia.
Coach Approach: Get strategies and resources for supporting clients in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome.
Blood Sugar Balance & Metabolic Flexibility
Get to know glycemic impacts, insulin resistance, and timing strategies to coach clients through energy crashes and cravings.
Coach Approach: Coach clients on simple swaps and timing strategies to stabilize blood sugar and avoid energy crashes.
Nutritional Psychology & Mindful Eating
Understand the biology of cravings and habits—and gain sensory-based tools to help clients shift emotional eating patterns.
Coach Approach: Coach clients to decode emotional eating patterns and use mindful eating to shift behavior.
Food as an Anti-inflammatory Tool
Explore how omega-3s, antioxidants, and phytochemicals modulate inflammation—and how to guide clients in using foods like turmeric and leafy greens.
Coach Approach: Gain tools to coach clients on using turmeric, ginger, leafy greens, and fatty fish to reduce chronic inflammation naturally.
Micronutrients for Immunity & Gut Function
Understand how vitamins A, D, C, and key minerals regulate immunity and gut integrity—plus how deficiencies can disrupt both.
Coach Approach: Tips for coaching clients on addressing nutrient deficiencies.
Neuroimmune Nutrition
Study the gut-brain connection, neuroinflammation, and how dietary shifts can support mood, cognition, and focus.
Coach Approach: Learn to support clients experiencing mood issues or cognitive fatigue through gut-focused dietary strategies.
Toxins, Detox & Liver-Gut Axis
Examine food’s role in detoxification—and how to reduce toxic load through diet, lifestyle, and liver support.
Coach Approach: Guide clients to choose food and lifestyle habits that optimize phase I/II liver detox pathways.
Food, Culture & Identity
Integrate ancestral diets and cultural foodways into personalized coaching that respects each client’s values.
Coach Approach: Celebrate cultural foodways while helping clients integrate nutrition science in a way that respects their identity and values.
Culinary Coaching & Grocery Skills
Bring nutrition to life with meal planning tips, label reading, and practical cooking guidance to support everyday change.
Coach Approach: Help clients transform grocery trips into empowering, values-based choices that promote long-term health.
The Science of Taste, Smell & Behavior
Unpack how the brain interprets flavor—and how that influences food decisions, fullness, and satisfaction.
Coach Approach: Understand how the brain interprets flavor through multisensory inputs—and how that influences client habits.
Functional Nutrition for Coaches Modules
This course is broken down into 10 individual modules, each with instructional videos, handouts, and review questions to evaluate progress.
Module 1:
Why Functional Nutrition for Coaches?
Module 2:
The Truth About Food and Nutrition: Science vs. Sentiment
Module 3:
Helping Clients Tune Into Food Triggers and Dietary Responses
Module 4:
Supporting Gut Microbiome Health With Nutrition
Module 5:
The Role of Nutrition in Immune Health
Module 6:
The Role of Nutrition In Metabolic Health and Longevity
Module 7:
How Physiology Drives Eating Choices and Behaviors
Module 8:
Examining Diet Culture and Its Impacts
Module 9:
Navigating Nutrition Trends and Integrating Cooking into Coaching Practices
Module 10:
Celebrating Food, Culture, and Connection
Meet Your Educators
Learn from the best in the field.
Our Functional Nutrition course features 23 leading experts in nutrition science, functional medicine, and coaching — each bringing deep knowledge and real-world insight to help you elevate your practice.
Jeffrey Bland
Elizabeth Boham
Jonny Bowden
Monique Class
Courtney Contos
Colleen Cutcliffe
Patrick Hanaway
Rachel Herz
Kristi Hughes
Ashley Koff
Liz Lipski
Gabrielle Lyon
Patti Milligan
Deanna Minich
Austin Perlmutter
Sandra Scheinbaum
Shilpa Saxena
Shawn Stevenson
Terry Wahls
Kalea Wattles
Beverly Yates
Frequently Asked Questions About The Course
How Will This Course Help Me?
This course serves as both a professional development experience and a personal wellness journey.
It will empower you to take charge of your health and nutrition using a Functional Medicine lens.
- Build greater self-awareness of how food influences your mood, energy, and resilience
- Gain confidence in interpreting your symptoms and body cues through the lens of functional nutrition.
- Experience personal transformation through mindful cooking, joyful eating, and supportive lifestyle practices.
- Feel reconnected to food not just as fuel, but as a tool for self-care, pleasure, and healing.
How Will This Help My Coaching Practice?
Get equipped with the science, strategies, and language relevant to their scope to support clients more effectively in their nutrition choices– regardless of your niche.
- Gain confidence to support gut health, inflammation, blood sugar balance, and emotional eating—within your scope
- Acquire a broader toolkit grounded in microbiome science, metabolic health, and eating psychology
- Discover coaching-ready strategies for grocery shopping, cooking, and meal planning that fit real-life client needs
- Establish stronger client relationships through personalized, flexible nutrition support—no strict diets required
- Expand your market reach by appealing to clients seeking whole-person, food-first guidance
- Develop credibility and collaboration potential with practitioners across healthcare and wellness by being able to speak to their patient needs.
Who Is Eligible For The FNS Credential?
The Functional Nutrition Specialist (FNS) certification is only available to graduates from FMCA’s Health Coach Certification Program.
FMCA Alumni hold the credential Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC) and are eligible to add FNS to their credentials upon completion of this course to be FMCHC-FNS.
If you are not an FMCA graduate, you can still take the course and will receive a completion certificate and badge.
Is There A Live Component To This Course?
Functional Nutrition for Coaches: Helping Clients Thrive through Empowered Eating is fully asynchronous.
- Complete 30+ hours of course content at your leisure.
- Enjoy lifetime access to course materials and handouts.
- The course is hosted on the LearnWorlds platform, with access available at any time with your unique login.
$2,999
$1,999
Save $1,000 with code FNCOACH