Human Nutrition I

Human Food and Nutrition -Distance Education Course

• Learn about nutrition
• Improve your diet, improve your families diet
• Work in nutrition, lay the foundation for further studies
• 100 hour self paced course, with options to upgrade to a certificate or diploma

What is Good Food?

This distance learning course is your first step toward an in depth understanding of human nutrition. 

It provides complimentary skills for people involved with food and health across a very wide range of vocations, for example, health or fitness professionals, chef's, food sales staff, carers ... 

This course should be viewed as a starting point for persons wanting to work more specifically in the field of nutrition and also provides the individual with the knowledge needed to better manage their own diet, not just the diets of those around them. 

Important: To work as a nutritionist or prescribe food supplements in most developed countries you will be required to do more study than the 100 hours in this course.  This 100 hour short course is often used as part of Certificates and Diplomas in Nutrition. 

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Nutrition
   • Important factors in nutrition
   • Ingredients and cooking methods
   • Understanding eating
   • Major food groups
   • Food allergies and Intolerance introduction
2. The Digestive System
   • The Alimentary Canal- Muscular Structures
   • Accessory Digestive Organs
   • Digestive Tract Linings
3. Absorption and Enzymes
   • Physical and Mechanical breakdown
   • Understanding biochemical breakdown
   • Biological breakdown
   • Digestive Hormones
   • Digestive Enzymes
   • Absorption - anatomical adaptations for absorption
   • Absorption (general)
   • Detoxification mechanisms
   • The Urinary System
   • Physiology of the unrinary system
   • Skin and sweat glands
4. Energy Value of Foods
   • The science of nutrition
   • Diet
   • Energy Value in Foods
   • Nutrients
   • Energy Production
   • Basal Metabolic Rate
5. Carbohydrates and Fats
   • Types of Carbohydrates - Monosaccharides,Oligosaccharides and Polysaccharides
   • Carbohydrates in the diet
   • Carbohydrates in the body
   • Alcohol
   • Fats and fat biochemistry
   • Fats in the diet
   • Fats in the body
6. Proteins
   • Uses in the body
   • Recommended protein intakes
   • Grains
   • Vegetables
   • Nuts and Seeds
   • Beef, Poultry and Fish (meat struture)
   • Meat Quality
   • Eggs and Dairy
   • Proteins in the diet
   • Proteins in the body
7. Vitamins and Minerals
   • The Recommended Daily Allowance
   • The Dietary Reference Intake
   • Summary of Vitamins
   • Fat soluble vitamins
   • Water soluble vitamins
   • Common minerals
   • Inorganic elements
   • The Calcium Debate
8. Water
   • Water in the body (function)
   • Water retention
   • Water loss and chronic dehydration
9. Nutrient Disorders
   • Selected digestive system disorders
   • Vomiting
   • Peptic ulcer
   • Jaundice
   • Lactose intolerance
   • Haemorrhoids
   • Cirrhosis
   • Allegies
   • Cholesterol, heart disease and atherosclerosis
   • Bowel Cancer
   • Problems with nutrition

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the role of different food types in human health.
• Explain the physiology of digestive processes.
• Recommend appropriate intake of vitamins.
• Recommend appropriate intake of minerals.
• Recommend appropriate food intake to meet an individual's energy needs.
• Recommend appropriate carbohydrate intake.
• Recommend appropriate fat intake.
• Recommend appropriate protein intake.
• Recommend appropriate water intake in different situations.
• Recognise signs and symptoms of the major nutrient disorders.

What You Will Do

• Distinguish between nutrition terms including: food, nutrition and diet
• Distinguish between characteristics and explain the significance of all major food groups,
• Label on unlabelled illustrations, parts of the digestive system and clearly explain their structure and function
• Distinguish between digestion and absorption of food and explain how different hormones control the digestive process, including: Gastrin, Gastric Inhibitory Peptide, Secretin and Cholecystokinin.
• Explain the meaning of basal metabolic rate (BMR) and describe how the intake of different types of food may affect metabolic rate.
• Explain how different factors other than food intake can affect digestion, including stress and disease and explain possible implications of mismatching food intake to individual's energy needs, through over or under intake of energy requirements.
• Develop guidelines to determining appropriate carbohydrate intake, in accordance with an individuals specific requirements.
• Distinguish between saturated and unsaturated fats in the diet of a specific person.
• Explain the role of fat in the body, including an explanation of different physiological processes involving fat. Distinguish between saturated and unsaturated fats.
• Explain the role of protein in the body, including examples of different physiological processes involving protein and explain factors which affect the bodies demand for protein.
• List different sources for each of several different minerals considered essential to human health and explain the role of different minerals in the body. Consider the relative values of different sources of minerals in your own diet, to determine minerals which may be supplied in inappropriate quantities.
• Distinguish between sources of different types of vitamins which are important to human health, including:Retinol, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Ascorbic acid, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Nicotinamide, Pyridoxine, Pantothenic, acid, Biotin, Cyanocobalamin, Folacin.
• Explain the proliferation of vitamin supplement usage in modern society and describe symptoms of five different vitamin disorders including deficiencies and toxicities.
• Explain the role of water in the body, for different physiological processes and list factors which affect the bodies requirement for water. Also, explain the physiology of dehydration, at different levels.
• Distinguish between the signs and symptoms of forty common problems associated with nutritional disorders, including: deficiencies, sensitivities and diseases. Also look at different techniques used by health practitioners for determining food/nutrition disorders.
• Explain the importance of obtaining a recommendation from a medical practitioner, when a nutritional disorder is suspected and the significance of obtaining a "second opinion", when diagnosing nutrient disorders.

You are What You Eat

Some people seem to be able to eat anything, without suffering any signs of ill health. They always appear fit, never get sick, don't get over weight, and they still eat junk food and other things which others simply cannot tolerate.

The healthy body has a remarkable ability to process and eliminate unwanted chemicals. If a person is in peak condition, any excesses or unwanted components of food, are likely to be eliminated through the urinary or excretory system, or even through sweat. Very few people, however, are in such a good state of health; and even those who are, are unlikely to continue disposing of unwelcome chemical compounds year after year for their entire lifespan. Sooner or later their ability to tolerate undesirable foods will decrease, and problems will develop.

This course is a starting point for understanding food; what we need to eat and how to make proper choices for yourself, your family, and/or clients.

Why Study This?

This course may be underaken by different people for different reasons; for example:

• Fitness leaders, life coaches, sporting professionals
• Students as a foundation for further and more specialised study in nutrition
• Health industry staff wanting a foundation in nutritional science
• Individuals wanting to better manage their own nutrition
• and others

WHYCHOOSE US?

• Support:  communicate directly with staff . Answering you is our top priority
• Different:  if your training is different, you stand out
• Resources:  unique collection of people and intellectual property.
• Flexibility:  more options for how, where, when and what you study
• Learning is top priority: what you learn changes you for life. Everything else is secondary
• Better value:   Compare our cost per study hour.
• Reliability:  Established since 1979, and being independent means we have avoided the stresses suffered by many other institutions