Lia Thorpe

The more I read, the more enthusiastic I became. I’ve always loved eating, but I’d struggled with balance throughout my life and often ate a lot of unhealthy food. During my gap year, I realised that I had to make some changes and started educating myself about food and nutrition. I started following a vegetarian diet and eventually switched to a fully plant-based diet.

I wanted to take my growing interest in food further. So, I decided to study Nutrition & Health at university to better understand its impact on people and society. I considered Food Science but that felt like it was delving too much into a specific topic when I still wanted to understand the wider field of nutrition. Nutrition & Health offered a more interesting range of topics to study and the chance to focus on areas that really matter to you.

One of the things that most surprised me about the course was that you don’t need Science A-Levels. In first year, you cover a lot of science to get everyone up to the same level. The science modules actually turned out to be my favourite ones – I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

I’m also surprised at how much I’ve liked the research skills modules. I thought it would be difficult, but I love the freedom and choice you have to follow your own interests. I’m actually really looking forward to doing my own research project in my dissertation – I never thought I’d say that.

Coming to university has been all about discovery for me. I thought I knew who I was but I’ve grown up and changed so much in the last three years. I’ve discovered how much I got wrong when I was teaching myself about nutrition from the Internet too.

I honestly didn’t realise how much there was to know. Nutrition is an everchanging and growing subject with new research being pumped out constantly.

It’s made me question and challenge myself. I’ve enjoyed learning about and debating both the positive and negative aspects of a vegan lifestyle. After studying veganism, I feel I can argue for it with more confidence now I have all the facts. I’m learning so much every day, it’s amazing, I don’t want it to end.