Biology and Human Nutrition*

Program of Study in Human Nutrition

Nutritional Sciences draws upon several disciplines, including biology, to understand the relationships between food, nutrients, and human health. The program of study in Human Nutrition offers biology majors courses concerned with the nature and biochemical function of essential and non-essential nutrients, nutrient requirements, the role of nutrients in gene expression, and the role of diet in both risk of chronic disease, and treatment of existing disease states.

Students in this program of study are encouraged to complete a diverse set of advanced courses affording a perspective on current knowledge of nutrient requirements and function and how this knowledge can be put to use. With the exception of a core course in the structure and function of nutrients, the course requirements are left unspecified. Faculty advisors work with individual students to develop a curriculum that fits the students' interests. As part of their program, students are encouraged to obtain laboratory experience either through coursework or research. Faculty in Nutritional Sciences are engaged in a wide variety of research activities, including nutritional regulation of gene expression, nutrient function, and regulation of nutritional status, employing diverse approaches such as cell culture, animal experimentation, and human metabolic studies.

Students completing the program in nutrition most often choose to continue their education in medical or graduate school, and pursue careers in the applied aspects of nutrition or in laboratory-based or epidemiological research.

Required Classes for the Program of Study in Human Nutrition

NS 331 Physiological and Biochemical Bases of Human Nutrition (4 credits) and at least 9 credits of additional coursework in the biological aspects of nutrition, such as:

• NS 222 Maternal and Child Nutrition
• NS 315 Obesity and the Regulation of Body Weight
• NS 332 Methods in Nutritional Sciences
• NS 347 Human Growth and Development
• NS 361 Biology of Normal and Abnormal Behavior
• NS 421 Nutrition and Exercise
• NS 431 Mineral Nutrition and Chronic Disease
• NS 441 Nutrition and Disease
• NS 452 Molecular Epidemiology and Dietary Markers of Chronic Diseases
• NS 455 Nobel Prizes in Biomedical Research
• NS 475 Mechanisms Underlying Mammalian Developmental Defects
• NS 602 Proteins and Amino Acids
• NS 602 Lipids
• NS 603 Mineral Nutrition: Metabolic, Health and Environmental Aspects
• NS 614 Topics in Maternal and Child Nutrition

Students should consult their adviser in the selection of these additional 9 credits.

Please note:

Some courses require NS 115 (Nutrition, Health and Society which may be used as part of the additional 9 credits.
2. For students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, credits in NS courses count towards the required 55 CALS credits. For students in the College of Arts and Sciences, NS credits count towards the 100 hours required in A&S if those credits fulfill major requirements.
3. Independent study credits cannot be used toward the 13 credit minimum.

*Biology majors pursuing the Human Nutrition Program of Study work with their advisers to develop their own packages of NS courses. These packages of courses should meet the needs and interests of the individual students while remaining true to the spirit of the program, which is to offer courses with both substantial biology and nutrition content. The decision about which NS courses are included so that the complement provides a program of study with substantial biology and nutrition content that matches the student's interests is made by the adviser.

Return to top of page

Webmaster Gail A. Canterbury
Updated October 14, 2004