Human Development/Life Cycle
Researchers in the Department of Nutritional Sciences study three areas of health promotion and disease prevention:
- Gerontology - Researchers look at strategies to communicate nutrition messages to groups and/or individuals and at the effectiveness of these strategies.
- Maternal and Child - Researchers look at dietary intake patterns in children and adults in America and beyond. From these patterns, assessments are made about relationships between diet and health.
- Neurobiology- Researchers look at methods to quantify food behavior and how internal regulators impact food intake.
Gerontology
Studies review the nutritional status and health outcomes of rural older adults.
In the longitudinal Geisinger Rural Aging Study, many participants are overweight or obese. At the same time, many also have dietary intakes that do not provide adequate vitamins and minerals. This low intake of vitamins and minerals leads to low levels of blood nutrients, which has also been shown to lead to more medical problems.
Listed below are faculty members who do research on nutritional issues related to geriatric health.
- John Beard
- Rebecca Corwin
- Gary Fosmire
- Gordon Jensen
- Shelly M Nickols-Richardson
- Barbara Rolls
- Catherine Ross
Maternal and Child
Retinol Binding Protein Retinol is a form of Vitamin A.
Vitamin A status is associated with survival when children have infections. For this reason, it is important to know the status of vitamin A in children and develop nutrition indicators of vitamin A status
Listed below are faculty members who do research on nutritional issue related to maternal and child health.
- John Beard
- Rebecca Corwin
- Gary Fosmire
- Shannon Kelleher
- Katarzyna (Kasia) Kordas
- Shelly M Nickols-Richardson
- Barbara Rolls
- Catherine Ross
Neurobiology
The brain, gut and body fat can communicate with each other.
Eating a high fat diet does not reduce hunger as well as low fat diets and therefore may lead to overconsumption and body weight gain.
Contact faculty member is Dr. Mihai Covasa.
Listed below are faculty members who do research on the neurobiology of nutrition.