Clinical Nutrition

Core Courses

Core Courses

Our core courses provide a thorough grounding in nutrition, which we believe is vital to being a good Clinical Nutritionist.

Food and Nutrient Requirements and Nutrition Through the Lifecycle

Course Leader – Dr Alison Parrett

This course provides an overview of the structure, function, sources and requirements of nutrients. Students will also gain an overview of differing nutritional requirements throughout the lifecycle.

Assessment - Students will sit an examination comprising essay and data handling questions.

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. Students are introduced to the importance of energy expenditure and discuss methods for estimation and measurement of energy expenditure. They will be able to explain the determinants of energy expenditure and the basis of individual differences.

Assessment - Students will sit an examination comprising essay and data handling questions.

Dietary and Nutritional Assessment

Course Leader – Dr Alison Parrett

Aims

This course introduces the importance of body composition and discusses methods for estimation and measurement of body composition. It provides an overview of the purpose, methodologies, limitation and setting for dietary assessment and introduces the principles and applications of nutritional assessment, looking at the main techniques and limitations in interpretation of nutritional assessment data.

Assessment – Students will sit an exam to answer an essay question and will complete a dietary analysis report of a three-day weighed intake.

Public Health Nutrition and Eating Behaviour

Course Leader - Dr Ada Garcia

Aims

The course provides students with an overview of the factors which influence food choice and eating behaviour and introduces them to the fundamental principles of nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition.

Assessment – Students will complete an assessed coursework essay and sit a data handling exam.

Clinical Nutrition Specialisation

Course Leader - Dr Konstantinos Gerasimidis

Aims

This courses trains students to obtain and evaluate critically 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.

Assessment - This course will be assessed in the final examination with essay and data handling questions. Students are also required to complete a research proposal, working in groups but handing in individual submissions.

Course Texts and Required Reading

• Introduction to Human Nutrition Second Edition (edited by M J Gibney, S A Lanham-New, A Cassidy, H H Vorster, 2009)

• Nutrition and Metabolism (edited by M J Gibney, I MacDonald, H M Roche, 2003)

• Public Health Nutrition (edited by M J Gibney, L Arab, B Margetts, 2004)

• Metabolic Regulation: A Human Perspective (edited by K N Frayn, 2003)

• Dietary Reference Values for Food Energy and Nutrients for the UK (Department of Health, 1991). TSO, London.

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

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