Volume 12, Number 1, 2003
In keeping with a national trend, the College of Health and Nursing Sciences has merged its Department of Nutrition and Dietetics with the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences, effective July 1. The new Department of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences was approved by the University's Board of Trustees in May.
"The two departments have a similar mission of promoting healthy behaviors," says Susan J. Hall, who chaired the exercise sciences department and now chairs the newly consolidated department. "The effects of good or poor nutrition and fitness and exercise are both part of the overall health picture."
Hall says CHNS students will be the principal beneficiaries of the change.
"Joining the two departments together will provide broader opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students," she says. "With a joint curriculum, students can more easily take courses in both areas and can opt for double majors or a major in one discipline and a minor in the other."
For Megan Donovan, CHNS 2003, who graduated in May with a major in exercise science and a minor in nutrition, the two fields seem to be a natural fit. "When I was choosing a minor, I wanted something that I was going to be able to use," Donovan says. "I was into health and exercise, and it just seemed that nutrition was such an important part of wellness that the two were a good combination."
Kathryn Zoli, CHNS 2004, a health behavior management major, says the connection between the two disciplines became apparent to her as soon as she took a nutrition course.
"There really is an overlap," she says. "I have a concentration in fitness management, and I realize that you have to understand nutrition to help anyone improve their health."
Donovan, who worked at a local fitness center while a student, says she frequently saw people working out who were paying attention to exercise but not to nutrition. Some weren't consuming enough food to fuel their workouts, she says, while others were eating so much unhealthful food that their weight-loss goals couldn't be achieved even though they were exercising.
"You're not going to be healthy without having both elements, good nutrition and regular exercise," she says.
Hall says the consolidation of the two CHNS departments also may lead to new majors, such as sports nutrition, and will enhance research prospects.
"Faculty and graduate students have already been involved in interdisciplinary research in projects involving physical activity and nutrition," she says.
"For example, one current project is examining factors related to nutrition and exercise habits that may distinguish obese and non-obese African-American females. Other joint endeavors in the past have involved measuring the effects of eating disorders on elite figure skaters."
The consolidated department has excellent facilities to support research in each discipline, with both of the formerly separate departments requiring lab work as well as field experiences as part of the curricula, according to Hall.
Also, she says, there are many interdisciplinary career opportunities for students in exercise science and nutrition in the corporate world and in the fields of education, medicine, gerontology, sports and physical training. As students enter different health-related career paths, knowledge of both disciplines often is desirable, she says.
Hall, who joined the CHNS faculty in 1999, is a graduate of Duke University and received her doctorate from Washington State University in biomechanics. The field of biomechanics involves the study of mechanics of living organisms, from ostriches and plants reaching for the sun to humans. She is the author of two textbooks, Basic Biomechanics and Sports Injury Management.
Hall's research, which focuses on preventing lower back pain, has included studying members of the U.S. Olympic sailing team who suffered back pain from trapezing, or suspending themselves over the sides of their boats to help keep the vessels upright. This type of research typically includes monitoring muscle tension using electromyography, a process that involves amplifying and recording electrical signals produced by activated muscle tissue.
Jack Smith, professor of nutrition and dietetics who served as chairperson of that department since 1989, agrees that the national trend is toward combining the two disciplines.
"The Centers for Disease Control have taken this approach, and others have followed," he says. "There are areas where the two disciplines are not related, but there are areas, such as the current obesity epidemic, where there are commonalities and where solutions lie in both nutrition and exercise."
Smith, who received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati and taught at the University of Nebraska and Tulane University medical centers before coming to UD in 1988, plans to return to the faculty. His research focuses on the effects of nutritional supplements such as iron.
--Sue Moncure