units

NUT1010

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

18 September 2017 27 December 2024

print version

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

Monash University

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Organisational Unit

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics

Coordinator(s)

Ms Andrea Bryce

Offered

Clayton

  • First semester 2016 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit focuses on basic concepts in human nutrition. It will introduce the concepts of energy balance and body composition and outline the process of digestion. It will describe the role and function of macro and micronutrients essential for human health, their history of discovery, and relevance for the health of populations and individuals. The dietary recommendations for optimal nutrition for the Australian population will be compared with recommendations in other countries. The unit will include the clinical signs and symptoms of specific nutrient deficiency and excess, as well as nutrient interactions and their significance. Methods of nutrition assessment will be explored focussing on methods used to assess food intake, data analysis using qualitative and quantitative methods; and comparison of this data to recommended dietary intakes for optimal health.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Explain the process of digestion and absorption of macro and micronutrients and discriminate between their respective role(s) in the human body.
  2. Identify foods sources of particular nutrients, and recognise the clinical signs and symptoms of particular nutrient deficiencies and excesses, and explain the reason for their development.
  3. Describe basic dietary assessment techniques and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of assessing food intake when evaluating nutritional status.
  4. Explain how food composition data is obtained and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this data in diet evaluation.
  5. State current nutritional recommendations for the general population and apply them to evaluate the adequacy of diets.
  6. Recognise the effects that nutrients may have on the absorption and utilization of other nutrients.

Assessment

Online quiz assessment (10%)
End of semester examination (3 hours) (50%)
Assignments (40%)

Workload requirements

6 hours per week of scheduled class / online contact plus 6 hours self-study.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Ms Andrea Bryce

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Nutrition and dietetics

Co-requisites

Must be enrolled in course M2001.

Prohibitions

NUT1011.