Core courses and specialisations

Core courses

Food and Nutrient Requirements and Nutrition through the Lifecycle
Course Leader – Dr Alison Parrett

This course provides a detailed overview of the structure, function, sources and requirements of nutrients. Food safety, food additives, genetically modified foods, food labelling and other key issues are discussed and debated. Students will also gain an evidence based understanding of the nutritional requirements at each stage of life and their relation to developmental and health risks.

Assessment - Examination comprising short essay, data handling, critical review and mind map and a coursework essay

Digestion, Absorption and Nutritional Metabolism
Course Leader - Professor Christine Edwards

Aims

This course provides students with an understanding of the processes of digestion, absorption and nutrient metabolism and how they relate to nutrition and health. The post absorptive metabolic processes and their impact on lipoprotein metabolism and other biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk will be discussed. Students are introduced to the importance of energy expenditure and discuss methods for estimation and measurement of energy expenditure.

Assessment - Examination comprising essay and data handling questions.

Dietary and Nutritional Assessment
Course Leader – Dr Alison Parrett

Aims

This course will train students to carry out dietary assessment and discuss the strengths and limitations of different methodologies and their appropriate use in different settings. Students will consider the principles of nutritional assessment using anthropology, biochemical, and functional tests and consider the evidence for their strengths, limitations and appropriate use.

Assessment – Coursework designing and validating a Food Frequency Questionnaire

Public Health Nutrition and Eating Behaviour
Course Leader - Dr Ada Garcia

Aims

The course discusses the factors which influence food choice and eating behaviour, presents the fundamental principles of nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition and reviews the evidence for the role of diet and exercise in the cause and prevention of chronic conditions including cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Assessment – Examination comprising data handling questions and a coursework essay

Nutrition Research Proposal

Aims

This course aims to allow students to acquire skills in developing a research idea and hypothesis and consider all aspects of a research proposal.

Assessment

Students are required to complete a research proposal. Students work in groups to produce the proposal although some written elements are individual to each student. After submission of the written document students must defend their proposal individually to a panel in an oral examination.

Core recommended reading

• Introduction to Human Nutrition 2nd Edn (Eds Gibney, Lanham-New, Cassidy, Vorster 2009)
• Nutrition and Metabolism 2nd Edn (Eds Lanham-New, Macdonald, Roche 2011)
• Public Health Nutrition (Eds Gibney, Arab, Margetts 2004)
• Metabolic Regulation: A Human Perspective (Eds Frayn 2003)
• Dietary reference values for food, energy and nutrients for the Uk (DoH 1991).

Students will also be expected to read relevant reports and peer-reviewed articles.

Specialisation courses

Students have the option to specialise in their particular area of interest. Subject to satisfactory completion of the taught components, students then progress to a research project within their specialisation*

Public Health Nutrition Specialisation
Course Leader - Dr Ada Garcia

Aims

This course provides students with the skills required to conduct a needs assessment and plan, implement and evaluate a nutrition intervention. Students have the opportunity to work as a member of a project team. Students following the Public Health Nutrition route will have the knowledge and expertise to perform the competencies of Public Health Nutritionist, as described by Nutrition Society in 2007. This route is accredited by the Association for Nutritionists (AfN) and graduate can become Associated Registered Public Health Nutritionists (ARPHN).

Recommended Reading

Students will be expected to read relevant reports and peer-reviewed articles and websites.

Clinical Nutrition Specialisation
Course Leader - Dr Konstantinos Gerasimidis

Aims

This courses trains students to obtain and critically evaluate the scientific evidence, and thus master the principles of disordered nutrition in the aetiology of disease, as a consequence of disease, and in the management of disease (including primary nutritional disease). Students also learn skills, which with experience will lead to competency in the identification of at-risk patients whose nutritional status should be assessed, and in the practical assessment of nutritional status.

Please note that the Clinical Nutrition specialisation course does not include clinical experience.

Recommended Reading

• Clinical Nutrition (edited by M J Gibney, M Elia, O Ljungqvist, 2005)

Students will also be expected to read relevant reports and peer-reviewed articles.

Sports and Exercise Nutrition Specialisation
Course Leader - Dr Dalia Malkova

Aims

This course provides students with an evidence based understanding of the role and importance of Nutrition in Exercise and Physical Performance. Students have the opportunity to critically review and discuss recent literature in Sports and Exercise Nutrition.

Recommended Reading

• Clinical Sports Nutrition (3rd Edition) (edited by L Burke, V Deaking. 2006).

Students will also be expected to read relevant reports and peer-reviewed articles.

Obesity and Weight Management Specialisation
Course Leader - Dr Leanne Harris

Aims

This course provides students with the skills to obtain, and critically evaluate, the scientific evidence on overweight/obesity, its aetiology, its health consequences and its prevention and management and competencies in patient assessment, diet design and delivery, monitoring and audit for service improvement.

Recommended Reading

• ABC on Obesity 2007

Students will be expected to read relevant reports and peer-reviewed articles

*We cannot guarantee specialisation of choice to all students