Among the topics, you will learn in the nutrition course are: (Note that they are not in sequence of how they are studied.)
Public health and nutrition intervention -You learn about the common public nutrition/health problems. You identify the signs that indicate these problems and basic methodologies employed in assessment of nutrition. Additionally, you identify the public nutrition and health interventions at individual, household and community levels, and the determinants of diagnosing, planning, implementing and evaluating intervention programmes.
Biochemistry-You learn about the functions and structure of nutrientsi.e. carbohydrates, proteins, fatsand nucleic acids as well as their metabolism and regulation. Besides this, you study enzymes, their functions and categorizations. You also study the role of vitamins and minerals in your body.
Food Microbiology and Biotechnology- This unit is particularly important in what applies to the food industry and food companies. In this unit, you learn about industrial micro-organisms and processes of fermentation, heat and mass transfer etc. You study how cultures are isolated-enzyme and cell cultures, and screen for new products. You also learn about sterilization processes and anti-microbial substances,, about flavours and preservatives.
Principles of Nutrition Counselling-As for this unit, focus is on roles and principles of counselling, the qualities of a nutrition counsellor and how you develop nutrition counselling plans and techniques. In essence, you study the components of a counselling process.
Nutrition Education-You learn the significance of nutrition and health education. You understand what healthy eating and nutrition involves. You study how to create appropriate nutrition and health education messages, which channels to utilize and how the implementation and evaluation of health and nutrition programmes is undertaken. Further, you identify the roles of different stakeholders in nutrition and health education programs.
Diet Therapy-You learn to define different types of diets comprising what a normal diet is, ad what modified diets and therapeutic diets are. You learn about enteral and parenteral nutrition, ad how they are administered. You study the roles of nutritionists and dietitians. You also learn about the care process; and its phases as well as nutritional therapy for different patients i.e. those with food intolerances and allergies, gastrointestinal disorders etc. You learn about drug–nutrient interactions and the different nutrition supplements and their dosages. You study functional foods and their importance.
Principles of Food Processing, Preservation and Storage -Quality of raw food materials. Introduction to food processing and preservation techniques; energy input (heat, irradiation, microwaves, pressure), temperature reduction (chilling, freezing), water removal (concentration, evaporative drying, freeze drying), biological methods (acid and alcohol fermentation, malting) chemical methods (additives, smoking). Nutrient loss in food processing, preservation and storage. Packaging and storage.
Nutrition in Emergencies-You are taught the types of emergencies, and how to handle these situations rapidly. You focus on the indicators of nutrition and health. You also study the types of assessments utilized in nutrition situations, food security and health emergencies and the applicable nutrition and health interventions.
Principles of Food Processing, Preservation and Storage –You learn about the methods of food processing(heat, pressure, irradiation), methods of food preservation, how to determine the quality of raw food materials. You also study nutrient losses during food processing, preservation, Packaging and storage.
Introduction to Organic Chemistry-You study this unitwhenin the initial phases of your undergraduate. You learn more about the structures and functional groups of different molecules such as hydrocarbons, alcohols, carboxylic acids, ketones, aldehydes, so that when you study the nutrients, you grasp their chemical structures and how they function. You visit the laboratory for practicals of addition ad reduction reactions i.e. reducing sugars
Communicable and non-communicable diseases-You learn what communicable and non-communicable diseases are and how they can be prevented. You also learn the causes of these diseases and their relationship with nutrition.
Sports nutrition-In this topic, you acquire an understanding of the role of vitamins and minerals in exercise and sports, muscle metabolism, nutrition before, during and after exercise i.e. how much fluid intake in sports. You also learn about the recovery phase after exercise and the use of dietary supplements.
Research methods-You learn how to write a proposal i.e., the different types of qualitative and quantitative methods. You also learn how to devise a statement of the problem, to outline objectives, and determine research questions and hypotheses, how to conduct literature review, how to develop conceptual and theoretical frameworks, the various data collection methods and tools as well as methods of data analysis along with how to interpret and present data.
Applied statistics-You study what descriptive and inferential statistics is about through which you apply this knowledge in your hypothesis testing and data analysis. Moreover, you apply your knowledge in statistics in data presentation and multi-variate analysis.
Nutrition Assessments-You learn the various nutrition assessment methods and how they are employed, determinants of nutritional status and how to identify most vulnerable groups. You also study the common malnutrition problems, alongside the common indicators of nutritional status.
Nutrition and Food Security-You learn the food and nutrition problems at local and international levels, and how they impact household and community food security. You study the determinants of food security and food security coping strategies. Water and sanitation. Toxicant and additives in the food chain.
Nutrition anthropology-You study the sociology, behavioural and evolutionary trends in food and nutrition. You learn the evolutionary perspective on human diet; as well as the cultural perspectives in nutrition including food taboos. You go further to study human behaviour in food gathering, and preparation.
Human Nutrition –This unit informs you aboutdifferent food groups, nutrients(macronutrients and micronutrients; and their functions, deficiency diseases, the significance of proper nutrition. Digestion, absorption, bioavailability and metabolism of these nutrients along with the implications of exceeding or limiting any nutrient plus the Recommended dietary standards (RDA and RDI) of each nutrient.
Introduction to Nutrition Epidemiology –You study how a disease occurs and how it advances, Disease causal models, Epidemiological study designs as well as measures of morbidity, mortality and.
Maternal and child health– As for this topic, you get to learn about nutrition requirements during pre conception period, pregnancy and breastfeeding. In addition, you study the phases of foetal development and necessary nutrition requirements, supplementation recommendations for the expectant woman and, infant young child feeding child growth monitoring.
You may also study courses not necessarily related to nutrition i.e. life skills , entrepreneurship communication skills, leadership skills to be imparted with skills that nurture a holistic person.