FSC5041 · Advanced food, nutrition and human health

Overview

This unit will introduce you to cutting edge research and innovation in the field of human nutrition in two key topic areas, the first centered around metabolism and individual health, the second focused on large scale public health. In the first topic, you will critically examine nutrition research relating to functional foods and new technologies that are designed to enhance health or prevent and manage disease, with a focus on metabolic mechanisms. In the second topic, you will explore the field of public health with a focus on how the food system influences nutrition and health issues such as chronic disease and food security in our changing world.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. Appraise the value of functional foods with relevance to population health and the current food landscape;
2. Explain the process of functional food research, including how evidence is generated and used to support innovation;
3. Critically appraise the latest developments in the commercialisation of food and health applications and technologies;
4. Justify the benefits of taking a public health approach to food, including economic, environmental and health impacts;
5. Apply the best available evidence to critically evaluate and solve problems in public health nutrition;
6. Communicate scientific concepts relating to food, nutrition and health effectively and efficiently with peers, professionals and the public.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of directed learning activities and independent study. The unit will have a minimum of 6 hours of directed learning activities per week, including a combination of teacher directed learning (seminars and workshops), peer directed learning and online engagement An additional 6 hours will be spent in independent study (library searches, reading and preparation of assignments).

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.