Description

Nutrition for Exercise and Health

Description - summary of the module content

Module description

This module will develop your understanding of links between nutrition, exercise and health. You will examine the impact of nutritional strategies on both acute and chronic health issues (e.g. type II diabetes) and consider the role of nutritional strategies in managing such issues. This module will focus on developing your knowledge of essential information that is required to work as an applied practitioner within health and exercise settings.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims at providing you with a deep understanding of the role nutrition plays in the pathophysiology of common chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, and neuro-degenerative and cardiovascular disease. You will understand how inflammation and hormonal imbalance can lead to chronic disease onset. You will explore and assess the latest evidence on diet, physical activity and exercise approaches that have demonstrated potential for prevention and treatment of these conditions.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Synthesise the role of nutrition and the consequences of imbalanced diet on obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cancer development and management
• 2. Explain in detail the integration of metabolism, at molecular, cellular and whole body levels and its role in food intake and energy utilisation

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Describe in detail strengths and weaknesses in dietary and health research methods, that limit understanding and application of human nutrition knowledge
• 4. Integrates knowledge from a variety of sources to identify or propose solutions to improvement human health

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Work independently and organise your own time to meet deadlines
• 6. Assume responsibility for your own learning and work

Syllabus plan

Syllabus plan

• Single nutrient vs dietary patterns to promote health and prevent/treat chronic disease.
• Integrated metabolism in nutrition and the role of hormones in shaping food intake, satiety, and resting metabolic rate.
• Glucose signalling and homeostasis (insulin signalling health/disease, fasted/fed state metabolism)
• The role of diet, physical activity and exercise on metabolism and inflammation, disease risk and management of disease:
  • Cancer.
  • Ageing related diseases: dementia, Alzheimer’s, sarcopenia.
  • Hormonal imbalance related conditions (i.e. hypo/hyperthyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, fertility).
  • Cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease

Learning and teaching

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Assessment

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Re-assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will need to complete further assessment as required. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Resources

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Gropper, Smith and Groff (2016). Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism (7th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
• Wardlaw’s perspectives in nutrition. Carol Byrd-Bredbenner and Gordon M. Wardlaw (2019). McGraw-Hill
• Nutrition and Metabolism (2011). Susan A. Lanham-New, Ian A. Macdonald, Helen M. Roche. Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Payne, A., Barker, HM. (2010) Adanced Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition. 1st edition. Churchill Livingstone
• Ralston, SH., Penman, I., Strachan, M., Hobson, R., (2018) Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine. 23^rd edition. Elsevier.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/ (peer-review papers, government reports and position statements will be regularly posted and updated)
• Diabetes UK https://www.diabetes.org.uk/
• British Heart Foundation https://www.bhf.org.uk/
• Dementia UK https://www.dementiauk.org/   
• International Agency for Research on Cancer- WHO https://monographs.iarc.fr/
• NICE guidelines: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance

Module has an active ELE page

Key words search

Nutrition for health – chronic disease- obesity- metabolic disease – integrated metabolism – hormonal imbalance