Function Health's 'Eat Different' Wagers on Data-Driven Diets

AUSTIN, TX – January 05, 2026 – In a nation grappling with a stark paradox—spending the most on healthcare while ranking 48th in life expectancy—a new front has opened in the war against chronic disease. Health-tech company Function has launched "Eat Different," an ambitious initiative that moves beyond generic dietary advice to offer a deeply personalized approach to nutrition, guided by an individual's unique biology.

The program arrives as ultra-processed foods form the bedrock of the American diet, a reality linked to soaring rates of metabolic dysfunction and other chronic conditions. Function's initiative aims to challenge this status quo, not with another one-size-fits-all diet plan, but with a simple, powerful idea: what if the key to better health isn't a universal solution, but one found in your own blood?

A New Prescription: Your Own Biological Data

The core of the "Eat Different" initiative is a mindset shift powered by extensive biological data. Function, which has built its brand on making comprehensive health monitoring accessible, provides its members with biannual testing of over 160 biomarkers. This panel dwarfs the roughly 20-30 markers checked in a typical annual physical, spanning heart health, hormones, nutrient levels, inflammation, and even cancer signals.

The company argues this data provides a crucial, early-warning system. According to its own member data, the need is urgent: more than 65 percent of its user base shows suboptimal levels of fasting insulin, an early sign of metabolic issues. Over half have elevated Apolipoprotein B (ApoB), a critical marker for cardiovascular risk. Nearly a quarter exhibit low levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, essential for heart health. These are not just numbers on a page; they are direct biological signals heavily influenced by diet.

"Eating today is mostly a response to cravings or convenience, but rarely as the biological signaling it actually is," said Jonathan Swerdlin, Function's co-founder and CEO, in a statement. "Our food systems have largely been industrialized and heavily marketed, leaving us exposed to the harm default eating can inflict on our health."

This data-driven approach is already demonstrating results. The company highlights the case of Alan, a 69-year-old business owner diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Instead of following generalized advice, Alan adjusted his diet based on his specific lab results from Function. The outcome, according to the company, was a drop in his HbA1c (a key diabetes marker) from a dangerous 8.3% to a healthy 5.6%, along with a 14-pound weight loss and renewed energy. This aligns with a growing body of scientific research suggesting that personalized nutrition, guided by biomarkers, can be more effective than traditional dietary interventions for improving health metrics.

Challenging the Convenience-First Food System

Beyond individual health, "Eat Different" is positioned as a direct challenge to a food system built for convenience over health. Function is tapping into a palpable public sentiment; the company's press release cites that 76% of Americans would prefer to use food to support their health rather than rely on prescription medications. The initiative encourages consumers to look past marketing and cravings to understand what their food is actually doing inside their bodies.

This represents a fundamental break from the reactive nature of conventional healthcare, which typically intervenes only after symptoms manifest. By providing a continuous stream of biological data, Function empowers users to make proactive, preventative choices at the grocery store and dinner table.

To bridge the gap between data and daily life, Function plans to forge partnerships with restaurants and local markets. The goal is to make it easier for consumers to find and choose foods that align with their specific biological needs, moving the concept of "eating different" from a digital dashboard into the physical world. While details on these partnerships remain forthcoming, the ambition is to create an ecosystem where healthy choices are not only clear but also accessible.

The Price of Proactive Health

Function's broader mission is to help people live "100 healthy years" by integrating advanced diagnostics into a single, understandable platform. The company operates in a competitive landscape alongside players like InsideTracker, which focuses on performance optimization, and Viome, which analyzes the gut microbiome.

However, Function has aggressively differentiated itself. Its annual $365 membership fee—marketed as "$1/day"—provides access to its extensive lab panels through a partnership with Quest Diagnostics. More significantly, its acquisition of the imaging company Ezra allows it to offer members advanced scans, including a 22-minute, AI-powered full-body MRI for an additional $499. This makes cutting-edge diagnostics, once the domain of specialized medicine and costing thousands, more accessible for early detection of conditions like cancer and aneurysms.

This accessibility, however, comes with a critical caveat: Function does not accept insurance. The company frames this as a feature, offering transparent, direct-to-consumer pricing without the complexities of deductibles and co-pays. But this out-of-pocket model raises significant questions about equity. For many, the cumulative cost of membership, add-on tests, and advanced scans remains a substantial financial barrier, potentially creating a two-tiered system of preventative care. Furthermore, services are currently unavailable in several states, including New York and New Jersey, due to lab regulations, limiting its reach.

Your Health Data in the Cloud: Promise and Peril

Underpinning this entire model is the collection of vast amounts of deeply personal health data. As consumers trade their biological information for personalized insights, they enter a complex new territory of data privacy and ownership. Function's privacy policy states it limits data collection and shares information with essential partners like labs and payment processors. It also notes that aggregated, de-identified data may be used for research and to improve its services.

While such practices are standard in the tech industry, the sensitivity of health and genetic data introduces higher stakes. The promise of contributing to medical research and receiving personalized care is weighed against the risks of data breaches, the potential for re-identification of anonymized data, and the future use of this information by third parties in ways consumers may not anticipate.

As initiatives like "Eat Different" push the boundaries of personalized medicine, they force a broader conversation about the future of health itself. The ability to see, understand, and act on one's own biology in real time is a powerful tool for individual empowerment. Yet it also raises fundamental questions about who has access to these tools and who controls the invaluable data they generate, a debate that will only intensify as technology and biology become ever more intertwined.