Many students at UC Davis have taken NUT 10 at one point in their college career and most likely had the renowned Dr. Applegate as a professor. After helping countless students learn more about proper nutrition and how to take care of themselves, she is retiring.
Photo courtesy of Steven Oerding.
Dr. Applegate taught NUT 10 over 100 times during her 31 years at UC Davis. Most people know that she was a biochemistry major undergraduate at Davis. She later decided to pursue a PhD in nutrition with an exercise emphasis due to her love of sports.
Her popularization of NUT 10 started completely from scratch. She began teaching in 1985 when she filled in for the previous retiring professor. NUT 10 has gone through quite the journey, from finding the best method of giving lectures, to keeping up with technology. Before the advent of SmartSite (and soon to be Canvas), students accessed NUT 10 course materials through the website.
Photo courtesy of teaching.ucdavis.edu/nut10public/default.htm
Dr. Applegate also taught NUT 11 for 29 years, a class focusing on the controversies of nutrition. With the introduction of the NUT 10 online version during winter quarter 2014, she stopped teaching NUT 11 due to the increased popularity and demand of NUT 10. Ever since, NUT 10 has been conducted the way it is today.
Photo courtesy of Steven Oerding
The class design of NUT 10 is unique; even though there is currently an average of 1,000 enrolled students in the class each quarter, Dr. Applegate takes pride in maintaining the “old school” way of teaching the course.
“My big emphasis is keeping the small-community feel that I started with in which I knew the students,” Applegate said. “People think I don’t care about the students, but I absolutely do and I want each and every one of them to have a good experience in nutrition – whether they are taking it in person or virtually – that they feel part of the NUT 10 community. That’s what’s important to me.”
Photo courtesy of Steven Oerding
Despite retiring soon, Dr. Applegate is not ready to fully give up teaching. She was asked to create and teach the online class that will be open to students of all of the University of California and will continue to develop this over the upcoming year.
“24/7 I’m Nutrition 10,” Applegate said. “I live and breathe it. It’s the first thing I do when I wake up, it’s the last thing I do before I go to bed. Retiring will be a big change because my most favorite part about being here is teaching.”
Cartoon courtesy of Steven Oerding
Outside NUT 10, Dr. Applegate plays an integral role in the Davis community. She holds the title of Director of Sports Nutrition where she is involved in all nutrition counseling and education for all the student athletes. She plans on being a part of this for one more year before officially retiring.
Below is a photo of Dr. Applegate as the director of Sports Nutrition, talking to new baseball players about nutrition and how it affects the body.
Photo courtesy of Steven Oerding.
Dr. Applegate also teaches internship classes. She hosts a Sports Nutrition Internship for senior nutrition students to work with athletes. She is also involved in an internship for students that participate in giving nutrition lessons to people with disabilities in a garden and kitchen program called Team Davis.
Photo courtesy of team-davis.org/
We cannot forget how important the TAs are to Dr. Applegate. She dedicates countless hours to TA training. As always, she expects excellence, but most importantly, she believes in giving the graduate students the credit they deserve. Being a TA for NUT 10 allows them to develop their teaching skills through helpful review sessions and informative extra credit lectures.
Photo courtesy of Steven Oerding
Dr. Applegate is not just popular in the Davis community, though. A few years ago, Mythbusters asked Dr. Applegate to make an appearance and resolve the myth that eating turkey makes you sleepy. The verdict? If you eat too much food you get sleepy. It’s not just the turkey itself.
Additionally, Dr. Applegate was featured on numerous talk shows. She was featured on various TV and radio shows to answer questions about nutrition due to her expertise in the topic. Some TV shows include ESPN, CNN, Today’s Show, Good Morning America, and numerous local shows. She is interviewing for one or two magazine interviews each week, including those for online posts such as The Huffington Post and The New York Times.
Cartoon courtesy of Steven Oerding.
“Our mission is to educate and to inspire, and to facilitate learning and help students critically think,” Applegate said. “Everybody eats, so it’s a topic that people have at least a minuscule interest in. I take that responsibility seriously and want them to have a valuable experience in Nutrition 10. But I don’t want them to just recite what they learn, I want them to live what they learn.”
Cartoon courtesy of Steven Oerding