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Nutritional Sciences BS

Brenda Abu, assistant professor in RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, seeks to understand the effect pica, iron deficiency anemia, and food insecurity have on maternal health during pregnancy. Pica refers to excessive craving and/or eating of non-food items, such as, clay, soil, paper, ice, and paint chips.

Barbara Lohse, head of RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, hopes to reach 10,000 New Yorkers with free resources promoting healthy nutrition and lifestyle tools that have been tested and shown to be effective.

Industrial Design students envisioned solutions for utilizing waste in the apple and dairy industries for the international Biodesign Challenge.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 50: Contentious battles are often fought over the dinner table around what and how much a child should eat. RIT researcher Barbara Lohse, head of the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, and colleague Ellyn Satter have rigorously tested and validated a common-sense approach to identify and prevent nutrition risk in children.

RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology began the year under new leadership with Dean Yong “Tai” Wang. Wang joined RIT in January from the University of Texas at Tyler. His research focuses on rehabilitative biomechanics related to wheelchair locomotion and Tai Chi exercise.

The best-practice approach, known as the Satter Division of Responsibility in Feeding, has now been rigorously tested and peer reviewed. The questionnaire will become a standard parent survey for professionals and researchers working in the early childhood development field, predicts lead researcher Barbara Lohse, director of RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition.

RIT is seeking individuals diagnosed with metabolic syndrome to participate in a national clinical trial. The study will evaluate a wellness program designed to reverse conditions leading to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Research is underway at RIT to create an app that will serve as a resource to help young mothers answer questions about raising a child, connect them with programs and resources, as well as foster a virtual parenting community.

As a graduate student in Ghana, Brenda Abu witnessed the toll of anemia, a condition that afflicts as many as 70 percent of the children and 45 percent of the women in that West African nation. Her experiences convinced Abu to pursue a career researching nutrition, specifically looking for ways to reduce anemia in mothers and their children.

Students in RIT’s nutrition programs have created a tour of calcium-rich foods for Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival.

RIT is offering a new BS degree in nutritional sciences for students who want to apply nutrition concepts and principles to careers outside the clinical domain of registered dietetics nutrition.