Life Science (LS) 

Life Sciences (LS): NUTR 1020

Scientific Foundations of Nutrition

This course is designed to provide a broad overview of the science of human

nutrition.  Nutrition is an applied life science that integrates scientific principles across a variety

of disciplines and in society.  Using applied problem solving and data analysis, students will

explore nutritional balance and disease prevention in the context of the levels of organization,

metabolism and homeostasis, genetics and evolution, and ecological interactions.

Make connections between what you studied in this course with what you've learned in other courses at SLCC or before. Make specific references to your work in this class and in the other courses. How did what you learn in the other courses enhance what you learned in here, and vice versa?

Nutrition had a lot of overlap with the yoga class I took this semester. Both were focused on helping prepare their students to live a healthier lifestyle and had various assignments that looked at health related culture today. I found Nutrition had a much more scientific approach, but it it was extremely beneficial to take the two classes at the same time. I felt that Nutrition helped me to understand the why behind what we were practicing in yoga. I had a better understanding of the physiological impact of eating healthier and being more active through nutrition, and yoga helped me to actually practice those habits.

Reflect on how you thought about [course topic] before you took this course and how you think about it now that the course is over. Have any of your assumptions or understandings changed? Why? What assignments/activities/readings were influential in this process? How will you approach [course topic] differently in the future?

Before taking this class I considered myself to be a pretty healthy individual. Nutrition and exercise have always been important to me, but this class really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Specifically, in completing a food log tracking my eating habits for a few days and then running the reports to see how close I was to eating recommended daily percentages of each vitamin and mineral, I was very surprised with the results. I realized that eating healthy is a conscious choice you have to make and you have to work towards getting all the proper nutrients your body needs by planning meals ahead of time. Even though I was making health conscious choices with the food I ate during that experiment, I still didn't come close to meeting a lot of the recommendations. In the future I will be much more conscious about creating a balance in the food I eat rather than focusing strictly on calorie intake, and as a whole I will approach nutrition as the key to developing a healthy foundation for the long life ahead of me.