Undergraduate majors may choose, by the electives they take, to focus on a particular emphasis in Nutritional Science - Experimental Nutrition or Applied Nutrition. For example, students using Nutritional Science as a pre-professional major may decide to focus on Experimental Nutrition by choosing as electives Molecular Biology (Biol 240), Genetics (Biol 340) and Cell Biology (Biol 360). Alternatively, majors especially interested in Applied Nutrition may elect to take International Nutrition and Health (NDFS 380), Community Nutrition (NDFS 400) and Nutrition Through the Life Cycle (NDFS 424). A third option is to choose a mix of courses from the list of electives in order to obtain a broader view of the entire Nutritional Science field. Students are not required to formally select and declare an emphasis and remain in a particular track. This freedom to choose among several elective courses allows students to customize their program according to their particular interests to meet their educational goals.

Experimental Nutrition

Experimental Nutrition emphasizes basic, discovery research to describe and define the mechanisms for the effects of food components on structure, physiologic function, disease resistance, and human performance. Laboratory studies are conducted in human subjects, animal models, and in cultured cells. Research foci include nutrient metabolism, nutrient regulation of gene expression, diet and gene interactions in determining risk for chronic disease, computer modeling, human energetics and body composition.

Applied Nutrition

Applied Nutrition includes public health nutrition, community nutrition, nutrition education, and international nutrition.

Public health nutrition is the study of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors influencing the relationships between diet, nutrition status, and health or disease in populations. It includes nutrition from the perspective of the social and behavioral sciences, public policy or epidemiology and design and implementation of nutrition interventions to improve health and prevent disease.

Community nutrition is the study of how communities meet their food and nutrition needs by seeking understanding between nutrition, agriculture, health, and the community.

Nutrition education is the study of education strategies, behavior, and communication to develop and disseminate nutrition education and communicate information on food, nutrition, and health issues to students, professionals, policy makers, and the public.

International nutrition is the study of human nutrition of relevance to both economically less-developed countries and to disadvantaged populations of more affluent countries. Areas of research include undernutrition and deficiency diseases, relationships between infection and nutrition, and the effects of economic development policy on nutritional status.

Supporting Minors

Completion of a minor in another discipline is not a requirement for graduation with a B.S. in Nutritional Science. However, the additional training received in completion of minor requirements in related fields can significantly strengthen a student's preparation for employment or continued education in health professional or graduate schools.

Suggested minors for students emphasizing Experimental Nutrition include (but are not limited to)

• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Molecular biology
• Computing and information
• Statistics

  Suggested minors for students emphasizing Applied Nutrition include

• Area Studies
• Business Management
• Communications
• Computing and Information
• Health Education
• International development
• Political science
• Sociology
• Statistics

  Students are free to minor in any area of interest, whether or not they choose a particular emphasis in the Nutritional Science major.