Featured Member: Marilyn Gordon, EdD, RDN, CSSD

October 3, 2018

The DIFM booth at the Florida Food and Nutrition Symposium 2017 Left to right: Marilyn Gordon, EdD, RDN, CSSD, Fabienne Grossman, RDN, and Melissa Farello, RDN

Our Featured Member for this month is one of our very own DIFM State Coordinator, Marilyn Gordon, EdD, RDN, CSSD! Marilyn works at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida assisting the NSU Sharks athletic teams, sports medicine, and employee wellness programs. She teaches undergraduate Sports Nutrition and online graduate level courses in the MS Nutrition Program. She earned her undergraduate degree in Dietetics and Nutrition, a Master of Science degree in Exercise Science, and holds a Doctorate degree in Higher Education. She is a proponent of optimal health, sports performance, and disease prevention using healthy food choices as the ultimate fuel.

What is your area of practice and how do you incorporate integrative and functional nutrition into your work?

I am currently the Nutritionist and Sports Dietitian at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I educate and counsel the students, faculty, staff, and the community on various nutrition topics. I also work with more than 350 student-athletes to improve their sport performance. I have integrated the plant based diet into everything that I teach, whether it is cardiovascular, diabetes, sport performance, or wellness. I use an integrative and personalized approach incorporating mind-body modalities (yoga and meditation) into holistic health care. Recently we made “Turmeric Shots” in our Sports Medicine facility to highlight the benefits of turmeric in athletic recovery and inflammation reduction.

What ​are some of the results you have seen since integrating functional nutrition​ into your practice area?​

Since I work with NCAA athletes that are subject to drug testing, we emphasize the power of herbs, spices, and whole foods. We limit the use of additional supplements in our athletes and look for products that are third-party tested. I find that clients from the community are taking a variety of products with no clear goal in mind. It is something a friend recommended or they saw it on social media. I try to clean up their regimen. I come from a family that used many homemade remedies, so it seems natural to use the less harmful herbs, spices, and foods first.

In college, my roommate worked with a chiropractor, and I was amazed at all of the supplements they recommended. So I sought out the field of nutrition and dietetics as my career. Today we have access to an excess of information that may or may not be credible. We need to help the public differentiate between evidenced-based practice vs. evidence-informed practice vs. useless information.

We need to help the public differentiate between evidenced-based practice vs. evidence-informed practice vs. useless information.
- Marilyn Gordon, EdD, RDN, CSSD

Where have you completed most of your training in integrative and functional nutrition?

The majority of my training is through the Institute for Functional Medicine. I was greatly impressed with their “Functional Nutrition” course and from there signed up for the “Energy” and “Detoxification” courses. At some point, I would like to complete them all. I am also fascinated with Nutrigenomics, so I completed a 3-day workshop with Amanda Archibald, RD and her colleagues (a physician and biochemist) titled: “Using your nutritional blueprint to optimize athletic performance”. We evaluated our own “Sports and Exercise Performance Panel”. Then we took that information into Amanda’s kitchen where we designed beverages, appetizers, and full meals to address issues related to sport, such as overtraining, inflammation, tendon and ligament health, cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength and power. There is so much to learn!

What advice would you give anyone interested in learning more about integrative and functional nutrition?

For someone new to the field, take the “Integrative and Functional Nutrition Certificate of Training Program” offered by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. From there, take every opportunity to talk to those currently in practice and find out what they are doing. I think there are many ways to approach Integrative and Functional Nutrition. I found my niche in plant-based eating, sports performance, yoga, and meditation.

We appreciate all of the great insights and advice, Marilyn!