Health and Wellness on Campus: Nutrition Class Spotlight

Randy Houseman has a simple message for students in his Nutrition class: eating a balanced, healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein isn’t sexy, and it probably won’t show up on your TikTok feed.

“What the media wants to do is make something sexy,” Houseman says. “We hear the word ‘hack’ all the time—‘health hack’ or ‘nutrition hack.’ There are no hacks out there. There’s nothing easy.”

When a student scrolls through their social media feeds, Houseman says, they’re bombarded with a smorgasbord of dubious nutritional messages and myths—from TikTok videos decrying the evils of carbohydrates to Instagram reels promoting the primacy of protein. By teaching his students about nutrition and the methods to evaluate scientific studies and their claims, Houseman gives them tools to skip the junk food—and the junk science.

“My overall hope for the course is that kids become critical of what they’re consuming—and when I say consuming, I mean consuming information,” Houseman says. “I feel like kids are being constantly inundated with misinformation and myths. Trying to battle against that is one of the purposes of the class.”

To counter that misinformation, Houseman teaches students the basics of nutritional science—like how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates the body needs to sustain itself. Students learn, for example, that carbohydrates are absolutely essential for fueling the brain and athletic performance—while the protein supplements they take are often exorbitant because the body can only utilize so much protein at any given time. They also learn that the flashy scientific studies that create a stir on social media often don’t hold up against long-term studies that track thousands of people over many years.

Armed with a solid grounding in the science of nutrition, students are able to put their knowledge into practice. Throughout the semester, Houseman takes students on field trips to local grocery stores, where they evaluate the macronutrients of various foods and learn how to plan and shop for nutritious meals. The class also conducts various hands-on labs throughout the semester where they compare and contrast sports drinks, learn about lactose intolerance, and burn Doritos and other junk food to determine their calorie content.

Ultimately, Houseman hopes his students will take what they learn in his class and tell their friends. Perhaps if he can convince one class to eat better—more whole foods and fewer protein powders and bars—then maybe the message will go viral.

“I think kids influencing kids is where we have to focus our efforts on this topic,” Houseman says. “If you can get kids talking about it, other kids are going to be more interested in it, and they’re going to maybe try to dig a little bit deeper because of that.” 

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Originally published in Holderness School Today, Fall 2025.