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This page is for people who are working with — or who have worked with — qualified eating disorder treatment providers, and who want to understand the biological dimension of recovery alongside that care. Functional medicine is not a substitute for evidence-based eating disorder treatment, and we coordinate carefully with your existing team. We do not provide meal plans with calorie targets or any framing that treats food as a math equation. Our work is biological terrain support — not behavioral prescription. We respect the foundational work of the eating disorder field — including the principle that flexibility around food is healing for many patients — while also recognizing, as recent peer-reviewed work has argued, that biological subtypes within disordered eating may benefit from differentiated approaches.
Dr. Wiss founded Nutrition in Recovery, a pioneering practice for eating disorder and addiction-informed care, and has authored peer-reviewed research on the food-brain connection, sugar and ultra-processed food addiction biology, and the role of adverse childhood experiences and trauma in disordered eating. He has authored work in the Journal of Eating Disorders, Current Addiction Reports, Eating and Weight Disorders, and many more. The expertise behind this work has decades of depth.
The biological dimensions most relevant to eating disorder presentations:
Restrictive patterns, purging, and binge-restrict cycles all reshape the microbiome. Reduced diversity, altered short-chain fatty acid production, slowed motility, and gut barrier compromise are common. The microbiome itself influences hunger and satiety signaling, mood, and food preferences — meaning the gut both reflects and reinforces the eating disorder. Ultra-processed foods, when present in the diet, further drive dysbiosis and intestinal permeability.
Comprehensive nutrient assessment — particularly the amino acids, B vitamins, minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins involved in mood, cognition, and tissue repair — often reveals depletion that conventional bloodwork doesn't capture. Replenishing these is foundational, sequenced carefully and always in coordination with your treatment team.
Tryptophan, tyrosine, and the cofactors needed to produce serotonin, dopamine, and GABA all depend on adequate nutritional status. Anxiety, depression, and obsessive-restrictive thinking can persist in part because the raw materials for neurotransmitter synthesis aren't available. Reward circuitry — the dopamine and opioid systems that govern motivation and "wanting" — is also shaped by long-term eating patterns and, where relevant, by ultra-processed food exposure.
Eating disorders are inseparable from chronic stress physiology. Cortisol patterns, adrenal output, and the broader stress response shape both the disorder and recovery. For patients with significant trauma or adverse childhood experiences, HPA axis dysregulation is often a central biological mediator — a pathway Dr. Wiss has examined in depth in his published research.
Restrictive patterns often suppress reproductive hormones, sometimes for years. Functional assessment maps the full picture — estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and the metabolites that reveal what's actually happening.
Both restrictive and binge patterns drive inflammatory load that affects mood, cognition, and physical recovery. Trauma exposure and ultra-processed food intake are both independent contributors to systemic inflammation.
Cellular energy production is profoundly affected by nutrient and energy availability over time. Fatigue, cognitive symptoms, and exercise intolerance often track this.
Once gut barrier integrity is compromised, immune-mediated food reactions can develop that complicate recovery and sustain inflammatory load.
Our seven-test bundle gives a comprehensive view of the systems above. The GI Effects panel reveals microbiome composition, digestive function, and gut inflammation. KBMO FIT 176 with Gut Barrier Panel maps food sensitivities and intestinal permeability. NutrEval shows the deepest nutrient picture available. DUTCH maps the HPA axis and sex hormones. Blood work covers inflammation, thyroid, and metabolic markers. EnviroTOX screens for environmental toxicant and mold exposure. Genetics shows individual variation in nutrient processing.
All testing is sequenced thoughtfully — we don’t introduce labs that could be triggering or unhelpful at a given stage of recovery. If you’ve already done extensive testing, we integrate it.
Phase one is foundational and gentle. Gut barrier support, the most actionable nutrient repletion, and the biological pieces that have the highest impact for the lowest effort. We don’t introduce dozens of supplements at once. We don’t use restrictive elimination protocols in active eating disorder recovery — those carry too much risk of reinforcing disordered patterns. Phase two adds depth where indicated by labs and clinical picture. Throughout, we coordinate with your treatment team — therapist, dietitian, prescribing physician — and our work is parallel to theirs, never competing.
Many clients also use Wise Mind Nutrition— the ultimate eating disorder recovery journey, created by Dr. David Wiss — as a complementary self-paced resource between visits. Like the clinical work itself, it’s designed to support, not replace, your established treatment relationships.
The psychological and somatic work of recovery remains central. We support it from the biological side.
Program structure: main services page
This work fits people in eating disorder recovery — at any stage — who have established treatment in place and want comprehensive biological support alongside that care. It fits people with disordered eating that doesn't meet diagnostic criteria but is shaping their lives. It fits people who have completed acute treatment and want to address the biological residue of years of dysregulation. It also fits people whose presentation includes addiction-like patterns with ultra-processed foods (UPFA/UPFUD) — a phenotype that current eating disorder models don't always recognize as distinct. This is not appropriate as a sole intervention for active eating disorders. If you are currently in medical instability, severe restriction, or active purging, the right next step is acute eating disorder care — and we're happy to help you find it.