A NUTRITION study tour of the United States might sound like a lesson in fast food, but two Deakin students have discovered the country has much more to offer.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bachelor of Health Sciences student Alexandra Bell and post-graduate student Chelsea Gunther have just returned to Warrnambool after their east coast tour where they sampled everything from decadent chocolate to Amish fare.
The tour included visits to the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health in Washington, Campbell’s Soup, Hershey’s Chocolate Factory, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State University Creamery.
“At Hershey’s we got to make our own chocolate bars and went on a chocolate-tasting course where we got our masters in chocolate tasting,” Ms Bell said.
On a healthier level, the group also joined an Amish family for dinner.
“It was incredible,” Ms Bell said.
“It was beautiful home-grown food that was so different from what we had been eating.
“That’s not something you can do in Australia.”
Ms Bell said the tour opened her eyes to the different job options with a nutrition background and also to the different food labelling systems in the US, which were often difficult to understand.
“They are changing them,” she said.
“Their food culture is very different to ours.”
While on tour, the pair also got to visit some of Washington’s landmarks, attend sports games and experience US college life.
Ms Bell is majoring in health promotion and nutrition and has been able to complete study tours in both fields after visiting Cambodia in 2013.
“I loved the health promotion study tour to Cambodia and thought it would be neat if I could do study tours for each of my majors.”