How Nutrition Science Can Help Solve Some of the Most Pressing Diet-Related Health Issues

The rate of metabolic disorders like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart disease is rising at an alarming rate. Research linked this increase to modern foods and inactive lifestyles. Diets high in refined sugars, salt, and unhealthy fats, combined with increasingly sedentary routines, dysregulate the body’s metabolic systems. Over time, this leads to insulin resistance, weight gain, chronic inflammation, and elevated blood pressure, all of which set the stage for long-term cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

What’s especially concerning is how early these diseases take hold. Children today are exposed to calorie-dense and nutrient-poor foods. Add to this too much screen time and little exercise, and physicians are now seeing metabolic conditions in kids and teenagers. This early onset means that these young people may carry the burden of chronic illness for decades.

In this health climate, nutritional counseling has become more important than ever. People are surrounded by conflicting dietary advice, aggressive food marketing, and confusing health claims. While fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins like fish, poultry, and beans are helpful, many processed foods that add sugars, salt, or saturated fats to these ingredients are not. It’s hard to make sense of what truly supports long-term wellbeing.

The curriculum at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition is designed to prepare future nutrition and healthcare professionals to tackle these issues. “Nutrition experts play a critical role in cutting through the noise by providing evidence-based, individualized guidance that helps patients understand their unique metabolic needs,” says Kim Hekimian, PhD, Director of the IHN’s Master of Science in Nutrition program. “They can identify early risk factors, suggest healthier food choices, and help families build sustainable habits that can prevent or even reverse many lifestyle-related conditions.”

During their one-year master’s program, IHN students build their expertise to counsel patients on some of the most pressing issues in nutrition and healthcare today.

Heart disease

Heart disease is caused by a buildup of fatty plaque in the arteries (atherosclerosis), which is influenced by a combination of factors that include unhealthy diets, lack of exercise, obesity and diabetes as well as high cholesterol and blood pressure. Heart disease can also have genetic causes or could be influenced by stress, smoking, or alcohol overuse. Changing one’s genetics isn’t possible, but changing one’s diet and lifestyle choices is doable.

During their one-year Master's in Human Nutrition program, IHN students take several courses that focus on nutrients at the biological level, including Physiology and Nutrition Through the Lifecycle, and Essentials of Nutrition Counseling and Medical Nutrition Therapy, aimed to equip them with skills and techniques necessary to provide dietary counseling and help design healthy meals and menus.

Students also have the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice by counseling patients at the local hospitals or helping investigators with a study as part of their master thesis, which becomes a pinnacle moment of their program. “Presenting my thesis project on Remote Nutrition Counseling for Patients with Congestive Heart Failure at Harlem Hospital Center was the most memorable,” says Alyssa Kwan, RD, (MS '21).  “I enjoyed piloting the study and initiating nutrition interventions at the Harlem Hospital.”

Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease in which blood sugar levels are too high because insulin—the hormone that helps glucose enter the body’s cells for energy—doesn’t function correctly. In type 1 diabetes, which is genetic, the body produces little to no insulin; in type 2 diabetes, which is caused by lifestyle factors, the body doesn't use insulin properly. According to the CDC, 38.4 million people of all ages, or 11.6 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes.

Traditionally, diabetes has been treated with medications like insulin and metformin (and more recently, GLP1-s). However, new research finds that type 2 diabetes can be reversed by proper diet and physical activity. Type 1 diabetes is not curable, but is treatable, with similar lifestyle changes in addition to medicines.

IHN students study the biological causes of diabetes and lifestyle remediation approaches in several courses, including Integrative Nutrition and Pathophysiology and Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine. They also have the opportunity to engage in research of diabetes management and prevention. Recently, two IHN graduates chose to focus their master's thesis on how the order of foods consumed during the same meal affects the sugar spikes.

They found that when study participants ate protein and vegetables first—or even vegetables first alone—their blood sugar spikes were reduced by more than 40 percent compared to when they ate carbs first. Eating protein and vegetables before carbs also lowered overall blood sugar exposure, and eating vegetables first led to lower insulin levels after the meal. Their thesis was published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, contributing to the understanding of how food intake influences health.

Obesity and hypertension

Obesityand hypertension are both considered lifestyle diseases because they are strongly linked to factors like diet and lack of exercise. Obesity can cause hypertension because excess weight forces the heart to work harder to pump blood, and fat cells can release hormones and cause inflammation that increases blood pressure. These conditions can damage blood vessels, the heart, and the kidneys, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.

According to the recent CDC data, the prevalence of obesity in US adults was over 40 percent. Even more worrisome is that obesity is manifesting itself earlier in life. That’s why nutritional counseling is crucially important for parents and children alike. To develop this expertise, IHN students take a Physiology and Nutrition Through the Lifecycle course during which they study nutritional needs at key stages of life, from childhood to old age, learning how to prevent metabolic disorders at any point in life.

Some IHN graduates choose to continue the path of family medicine, as did alumna Nailah Adams, MD, MS, nowan Assistant Professor of Primary Care Sports Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Family Medicine. “Childhood obesity and healthy lifestyles have always been passions of mine,” Adams says.“I wanted to be a family medicine and sports medicine doctor to help communities become and stay healthy. Because what we get out of our bodies depends so much on what we put into them, I decided to pursue dedicated training in nutrition so that I could be a better healthcare provider.”

Conclusion

As metabolic disorders continue to rise—and develop earlier in life—the demand for skilled nutrition professionals who can advise on dietary choices, empower patients, and support healthier communities has never been greater. With a master’s degree in nutrition, you will be able to help patients tell the nutrient-dense foods from unhealthy ones and design wholesome meals for families, ultimately contributing to a healthier society. Sign up for a free webinar to learn more.