Undergraduate Programs

Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology specializations offer ideal preparation for medical school and other health careers such as pharmacy and dentistry. Many of the required pre-med courses are part of our curriculum. Our graduates who have pursued medicine find that our programs have informed their medical studies and have helped them to sustain and promote good health as professionals.

This is an exciting time to be exploring the sciences of nutrition and toxicology. The media have highlighted many stories on questions surrounding the role of diet in aging and proper development, the safety of genetically modified foods, the links between cancer and chronic diseases with diet, and the problems of malnutrition in much of the world.

In the department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology (NST), these are some of the questions we explore as we work towards developing an understanding of the role nutrients, phytochemicals, and toxicants play in human health and disease.

What mechanisms turn a high-protein diet into a fat producing diet?
Why does your body turn harmless chemicals into toxins?
What is the connection between diet and chronic diseases like cancer?
What can be done to reduce obesity in our population?

Our research and curriculum cover a breadth of topics from the delivery of nutrients from foods to mammalian cells, to the benefits and hazards of chemical agents, as well as the cultural and socio-economic determinants of human diets, and the development of programs and policies to address human and environmental health and safety.