How Can You Specialize a Master’s in Nutrition Degree?

If you are interested in learning about ways in which to specialize your master's degree in nutrition, we have some helpful pointers here. Perhaps you have a specific interest related to the field or are even motivated by a particular career demand. In many cases, specializing this valuable human health degree can be quite advantageous. Here are some helpful things to keep in mind if you want to effectively compliment this area of study.

Resource: Top 30 Affordable Online Master's in Dietetics

Minor as Needed

As in all college-level academics, the best and most simplistic way to beef-up or add onto a particular degree route is through minoring in a related sub-specialty. An elementary education major may therefore minor in psychology as a way to add specialty to their training. An engineering major could minor in architectural drawing so as to be especially capable in the use of mechanical illustration in engineering projects.

The list can go on forever, but in order to complement a nutritional degree specifically, think of the appropriate minor route that would be most advantageous to your individual situation and goals. Are you aspiring toward an occupation that could really use some additional, nutrition-related knowledge? Does this knowledge make you more employable in a multitude of areas or industries? These are all things to consider when choosing the minor route in which to become more "specialized".

To provide a little more insight on the matter, below are some common minor routes chosen in order to specialize this particular degree.

Sports Science

Sports Science is described as the "discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health from cellular to whole body perspectives". This is an obvious relative-science and can make for an excellent specialty. Careers in which such a combination of knowledge is prized include sports trainers, supplement developers, and specialty consultants among others.

Anatomy, Physiology

The studies of the inner-workings and design of the human body fall into the important realms of anatomy and physiology. A nutritional major that also possesses some specialty knowledge in the body's inner-workings can be especially useful. This is true within jobs that deal strictly or even loosely in nutritional/body-related matters.

Education

At first glance, education and nutritional science can appear to be seemingly unrelated schools of expertise. For those interested in careers in which nutritional concepts are professed, education is a highly applicable study. Nutritional science professors, high school nutrition teachers, privately-hired nutritional coaches, and even positions in curriculum development are just a few examples of educational-realm applicability when it comes to the nutritional major.

Food Science

According to the official Institute of Food Technologists, "food science draws from many disciplines such as biology, chemical engineering, and biochemistry in an attempt to better understand food processes and ultimately improve food products for the general public". To combine such an understanding with that of nutritional expertise is the ultimate coupling for many careers. Food science and food technology careers especially appreciate such a pairing.

Majoring in nutritional sciences can be the key to unlocking many, valuable job opportunities. Specialization is one way to make that degree even more valuable to the awaiting job world. By picking an appropriate minor such as those listed here, one can really specialize their master's in nutrition exactly as they would like and for exactly the goal in mind.