Date of Completion
2025
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Nutrition & Food Sciences
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Dr. Lizzy Pope
Keywords
education, weight-inclusive, nutrition, anti-fat bias, diet culture, health
Abstract
Objective: Determine how undergraduate students enrolled in Fundamentals of Nutrition, an introductory nutrition course, exhibit weight-normative and weight-inclusive thinking throughout the semester-long course. Methods: Student responses to eight weekly question submissions and one end-of-semester survey were collected and analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods, including template analysis and thematic analysis. Results: Themes observed and discussed include that diet culture permeates students' prior understanding of nutrition, students were curious about new perspectives regarding weight inclusivity, there was some difficulty reconciling weight-normative ideas with new weightinclusive content, and weight-inclusive topics were top interests over the entire semester. Conclusions and Implications: Students are receptive to weight-inclusive topics, and incorporating weight inclusivity into dietetics, nutrition, and health-related programs is important to mitigate harms of anti-fat bias, diet culture, and eating disorder development.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Woods, Brooke Farrell, "Evaluating the Effect of a Weight-Inclusive Approach in an Introductory Nutrition Course" (2025). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 763.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/763