NS 1150
Nutrition, Health, and Society DAVID LEVITSKY, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES • TAUGHT: 1989 – PRESENT How do you make this subject your own? I found the traditional way to teach nutrition, where you go through each of the vitamins and minerals, very boring. So I thought about why I like nutrition—because it relates practical chemistry to real things, like illness—and I started to develop the course along those lines. The top reason people see the doctor is because of gastrointestinal problems. So I start off by talking about GI events, some funny, some embarrassing. It gets their attention, and that’s what I want. That’s what I strive for. Why? If you have their attention, they don’t have to spend too much time trying to memorize things. They see the connection. I talk about the GI tract, and along the way, I talk about what happens when you eat protein, what happens when you eat carbohydrates. I show them videos of nonreputable products sold over the internet, talk about their claims, then proceed to explain why they’re nonsense. I’m constantly talking about pathology, heartburn, ulcers, all these things as I go along, and that always keeps them absorbed, pun unintended. When I talk about energy metabolism, I actually start running around the auditorium, stopping at various places and talking about what’s happening in my body. What’s the energy source that’s allowing me to make this quick start? I’m constantly doing things to get their attention, because I know if I’ve got their attention, it’s going to be easier for them to understand the material. Is it fun? Of course! I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. There are very few things as rewarding as standing up in front of 600 people and seeing their faces light up, thinking, “Oh, now I get it.” That’s the hallmark of teaching. Your students have to feel your passion for that subject. If they don’t, forget it. But if they see that you’re intrigued by this stuff, that you’re enchanted by how nutrition plays a role in creating, repairing, and maintaining that body, then they get into it. What are you passionate about? I’m just amazed at how well the body works. I’m amazed at how much we know about the ways chemistry works with physiology, which works with behavior, which works with economics, and how they all fit together.
36 SPRING 2015