Nutrition and Abnormal Psychology

One of the classes I took last semester was "Nutrition: Science and Applications, which is a class in the School of Nursing". It was a pleasant surprise to learn just how interdisciplinary nutrition is as a field of study. I registered for the class, hoping to study mainly food science. I learned a lot about how to eat healthier and the role nutrition plays in many kinds of diseases. I also learned about things I didn’t expect to learn about in a nutrition class. The class covered how politics, government and its policy shape the foods we eat and by extension our health. We also learned about how business and marketing shape the way people think about food and the consequences marketing has on public health. In fact, things I learned in nutrition class actually overlap with some of my other classes! I also took Abnormal Psychology in the same semester, which also covered eating disorders. Abnormal psychology class stressed the psychological and sociocultural factors and consequences of eating disorders, whereas the nutrition class stressed the medical complications that arise from eating disorders. This added so much depth to learning. It was quite interesting to learn about the same topic, but from the perspective of different disciplines!