Where Your Main Course Is Food
Courses
You’ll gain a deep understanding of the many facets of food and how it affects our health, environment, and communities when you pursue a degree in nutrition and food systems at the University of Arizona. You’ll take part in science courses that help you understand the impacts of the food system on human health, as well as core and elective classes that expand your knowledge of the food supply chain, sustainability, human health, and food systems.
Nutrition & Food Systems Class Sampler
You’ll complete general education requirements, core nutrition and food systems classes, and a selection of electives designed to increase your understanding of the role that food growth, preparation, processing, distribution, and consumption play in shaping our environment, our communities, and our health.
Core Nutrition Courses
- Introduction to Human Nutrition: An overview of current concepts and controversies in human nutrition. You’ll look at carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals in nutrition; and the relationship of nutrition to health throughout the life cycle.
- Nutrition and the Life Cycle: Examine the role of nutrients in human development, including the physiological basis for changes in nutrient requirements throughout the life cycle.
- A Systems Approach to Obesity Prevention: Explore the complex task of trying to change the way people eat, move, and live, and how to sustain changes over time. You’ll gain insight into obesity prevention, treatment, and policy approaches.
- Fundamentals of Food Science and Safety: Engage in an online course that explores the basic principles of food safety and food chemistry as they relate to food preparation. This course provides the background needed to become a certified food handler through the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe Program.
- Food Policy to Plate: Follow food policy from production to food consumption. You’ll learn how both national and local food policies drive the food system and affect food choices and consumption and public health.
Core Food Systems Courses
- Introduction to Critical Food Studies: Examine human interactions with food across various domains. You’ll learn about food’s intersections with histories, arts, and cultures; basic concepts in food governance and food economics; and sociocultural issues related to food justice, sovereignty, and ethics.
- Introduction to the U.S. Food System: Examine the U.S. food systems from production to consumption. You’ll learn about the drivers of the food system including policy, economics, and food culture, as well as outcomes of the food system including human and environmental health, food insecurity, and food waste.
- Food Justice, Ethics, and Activism: Explore cultural, environmental, and ethical disputes around food production, distribution, and consumption, including local and global food (in)security, the role of food in cultural preservation and revitalization, and approaches to sustainable food production.
- Community Nutrition and Food Security: Immerse yourself in a community food security experience by teaching nutrition in a community setting. You’ll learn about nutrition education needs, public policy, various nutrition programs, funding and grant writing, and the communication skills needed for various audiences.
- Senior Capstone: Develop a substantive project that demonstrates a synthesis of learning accumulated in the nutrition and food systems major, including broadly comprehensive knowledge of the discipline and its methodologies.