Loading BeingBrigid.com
 
 

Bridging the gap between food and health.

The BeingBrigid Mission

I am on a mission to help you transform your health and change your life through personalized nutrition. Learn to fuel with nutrient-rich foods, listen to your body, and ditch the food shame and overly generalized diets.

My Approach

1

Personalize your nutritional needs.

Overly generalized diets do not work because there are SO many factors that influence your nutritional needs.

+ Gender
Men and women are almost 99% identical in their DNA! But nutrient needs still vary with gender, including total energy, protein, dietary fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. Gender also influences hormone levels and risk of autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s Disease and more, which can impact nutritional needs.
+ Age
For both men and women, lean body mass decreases with age which is a major determinant of your resting metabolic rate, aka your metabolism. Aging also impacts your absorption of certain nutrients, hormones, bone mass, the elasticity of blood vessels and insulin sensitivity.
+ Health Goals
Health goals are very personal! Some of your health goals are influenced by your family history or genetics and others by environment. For instance, someone with an autoimmune disease will require different dietary changes compared to someone with Type 2 Diabetes.
+ Food Relationship
Your relationship with food needs to be considered before making nutritional changes. Do your current eating habits support a healthy and balanced food relationship without triggering anxiety, obsessiveness, or negative emotions? The goal is to find a diet that nourishes your body, supports your health needs and helps you feel your best physically, emotionally and spiritually.
+ Movement
Your level of physical activity has a huge impact on your energy needs, amino acid needs, your muscle’s uptake of glucose, timing of meals, electrolyte needs, and so much more. Exercise does not give you the ability to eat whatever you want. Optimal nutrition is required for helping you feel better and perform your best.
+ Nutrient Needs
Adequate nutrient intake and absorption are required for your body to thrive. The quality of the soil, your gut microbiome, stomach acid levels, genetics, health conditions and prescription drugs all influence the nutrients that you absorb from your diet. This is why each person’s supplement routine and food needs vary from person to person.
+ Microbiome
You have 100 trillion bacteria, viruses and fungi living inside your large intestine, or your microbiome. The composition of your microbiome influences your heart health, brain health, immune system, and more. And one of the only ways to change the bugs in your microbiome is through dietary changes. Your diet will depend on the needs of your gut ecosystem and how to feed more of the healthy bugs that live inside of you.
+ Genetics
The reason that the government food pyramid and other diet books may not work for you is because they are not customized to the needs of your DNA. Your genes influence your risk of disease, processing of fats, ability to detoxify, and activate certain vitamins like folate and vitamin B12. Eat according to your genes rather than what you have been told you “should” eat.
+ Blood Sugar
Blood sugar regulation is critical for weight loss and decreasing risk of metabolic syndrome. But every person has a difference glycemic response to the foods that they eat. Some people can eat higher glycemic foods without experiencing blood sugar spikes, whereas other people do best adhering to a very low glycemic diet. The key is to understand the best balance for you and to address any nutrient deficiencies that can impair blood sugar regulation.
+ Food Sensitivities
Food sensitivities are an IgG and IgA immune-mediated response that are different from food allergies. Some foods in your diet may contribute to a leaky gut and lead your immune system to attack the proteins from your food. This can manifest in a variety of negative symptoms. Not everyone needs to eat gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free but better understanding food sensitivities helps you know which foods are your symptom triggers.

 

2

Emphasize whole foods and key nutrients as the first line of defense.

7 out of 10 of the leading causes of death in the United States are nutrition-related. Beyond that, nutrition plays a role in every single disease. Witness the magic of using a food-first approach to rebuilding health.

3

Set an intention to nourish rather than diet.

Food is a powerful form of medicine but that does not translate to having the perfect diet. It’s about setting the intention to nourish every cell in the body rather than overly restrict or diet.

4

Apply Science and Data.

This approach to nutrition is based on the latest scientific evidence, in-depth clinical experience and data to substantiate progress.

5

 Address Deficiencies in the Core 7 Contributors to Health.

Personalized nutrition is one of our Core Contributors to Health. But we also have to zoom out and look at the entire equation for optimal health.

6

Build Community.

Creating and accepting new standards for your health and energy requires a strong and supportive team. We love bringing groups together to talk about their successes and struggles in navigating their way to health.

About Brigid

Brigid Titgemeier, MS, RDN, LD, IFNCP is a Functional Medicine Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and health advocate, on a mission to transform your health and change your life through personalized nutrition. With a Masters degree in Public Health Nutrition and Board Certification in Integrative and Functional Nutrition, Brigid was a founding dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, under Dr. Mark Hyman.

Throughout her career she has worked with 4,000 clients. She founded the functional nutrition and health consulting business, BeingBrigid Nutrition in 2018 to offer consistent health outcomes for her executive clients by leveraging a data driven personalized nutrition approach, advanced lab testing, education and coaching. She created a graduate course in integrative and functional nutrition with Dr. Stephanie Harris at Case Western Reserve University and co-teaches this course to educate future healthcare practitioners in functional nutrition.

Brigid has a Bachelor’s of Science in Dietetics from Miami University, as well as a Master’s of Science in Public Health Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University. Brigid has completed four years of advanced functional medicine training through the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy and the Institute for Functional Medicine. Brigid has published numerous articles for Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials, Mind Body Green, The Chalkboard Mag, U.S. News and World Report, and the Huffington Post.

A Glimpse of Brigid's Journey

2005

The start of the functional medicine journey! Brigid became a functional medicine patient after struggling with narcolepsy and about 20-30 mini seizure episodes per day. Her parents forced her to see a functional medicine doctor and change her diet. This went from being the worst to the best thing that had ever happened to her.

2008-2014

Brigid went onto study nutrition in college to help others in the way that she had been helped. She completed her bachelors in dietetics in 2012 but never loved the conventional nutrition route. Fortunately, she interned and then worked at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute and trained under Dr. Michael Roizen and Kristin Kirkpatrick who opened her up to the world of lifestyle medicine. She went onto get her master’s in public health nutrition and do her dietetic internship program at Case Western Reserve University in 2014. She interned at the Dr Oz Show & The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

2014-2017

Brigid was given the incredible opportunity to be a founding dietitian of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. She co-created the nutrition department, trained seven other dietitians, created the center's nutrition and weight loss group classes and a ketogenic diet group class for blood sugar balance. This was where she witnessed the true power of food and it's ability to heal the body. She also started and completed her advanced practitioner training with the Institute for Functional Medicine.

2016

Brigid started a blog as a way to create more recipe ideas. She basically had 100 readers for what felt like forever (mostly family and friends)!

2017

She created a graduate course in integrative and functional nutrition with her graduate school professor, Dr. Stephanie Harris at Case Western Reserve University. She continues to co-teach this course every fall to educate future healthcare practitioners in functional nutrition.

2018

She quit her job due to burnout, completed her additional functional nutrition training with the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy.She launched the first program, VIP Next Level Nutrition for CEOs and Executives in September 2018. And she met her future husband!

2020

She started living out her dream of building an amazing team and developing more resources to help you improve your health! And got married on her family farm that was started in the 1920s by her great grandparents, Gig and Grandad! :)