Nutrition MSc

This module provides an in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of nutrition, equipping you with the skills to critically evaluate key concepts, research data, and scientific arguments in the field. You’ll examine essential, conditionally essential, and non-essential nutrients, as well as gene-nutrient interactions and the impact of beneficial non-nutrients. A key focus is on dietary reference values, their sources, uses, and limitations, alongside an investigation into food sources of nutrients, toxins, and anti-nutrients. You’ll also explore how food production, supply, and preparation influence nutrient composition, as well as the digestion, absorption, and metabolic fate of nutrients. Understanding the role of diet across the lifespan, alongside mechanisms like energy balance, nutrient storage, homeostasis, and immunity, will provide a strong foundation for applying nutritional knowledge in health and disease. This module develops your ability to analyse and apply nutrition science, an essential competency for careers in nutrition, research, and public health.

Module Content:

1. Nutrients, including water and alcohol:

• Essential nutrients
• Conditionally essential nutrients
• Dispensable (non-essential) nutrients
• Beneficial non-nutrients
• Gene-nutrient interactions

2. Reference values: their sources, uses and limitations:

• Dietary reference values
• Safe Upper Levels

3. Food sources:

• Of nutrients
• Of other constituents of food
• Toxins
• Anti-nutrients

4. How food production, supply, and  preparation can determine chemical composition and content of dietary nutrients and other constituents.

5. Digestion and absorption of nutrients:

• Metabolic fate of nutrients / end products of nutrient metabolism
• Biological effects of inert ingesta

6. Role of diet, nutrition and foods across the lifespan:

7. Key functions of the body:

• Control of food intake
• Bioavailability of nutrients
• Energy balance and nutrient balance
• Nutrient turnover and storage
• Homeostasis and homeorrhesis
• Adaptation and its limits
• Diet and immunity

This module provides a deep dive into human metabolism, developing your critical understanding of the physiological and biochemical foundations that regulate energy production and nutrient utilisation. You’ll explore bioenergetics and energy transduction, examining how key tissues—liver, muscle, heart, and brain—meet their metabolic demands. A detailed analysis of carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism will enhance your understanding of energy pathways, from glycolysis and the Krebs cycle to lipid transport, ketone metabolism, and amino acid catabolism. You’ll also assess the role of dietary lipids, cholesterol, and essential fatty acids, linking metabolism to health outcomes. A key focus is on enzymatic and hormonal regulation, providing insight into how metabolic pathways are controlled and adapted to different physiological conditions. By the end of the module, you’ll be equipped to analyse metabolic processes, interpret biochemical interactions, and apply this knowledge to fields such as nutrition, healthcare, and exercise science.

Module Content:

1. Metabolic overview: metabolic requirements of tissues - liver, muscle, heart and brain; bioenergetics and energy transduction in cells; role of creatine phosphate; energy sources and pathways.

2. Carbohydrate metabolism – glucose and glycogen; glycolysis, glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis; TCA cycle; substrate and oxidative phosphorylation.

3. Dietary lipids – saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats; essential fatty acids; cholesterol. Lipid metabolism – triglyceride and ketone body metabolism; phospholipid and cholesterol; adipose tissue metabolism; lipoproteins –role and turnover; lipids and health.

4. Protein metabolism – amino acid catabolism and waste nitrogen; nutrition and protein metabolism; regulation systems.

5. Enzymatic and hormonal control of metabolic pathways.

6. Exercise/sports metabolism.

This module dives into the critical connections between nutrition and health, exploring how diet shapes the risk and prevention of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. You’ll investigate nutritional epidemiology and public health, examining how food choices and eating behaviours differ across populations. The role of scientific advisory committees and regulatory agencies will be unpacked, revealing how policies influence what we eat. Most importantly, this module equips you with the skills to analyse and apply evidence-based dietary strategies to improve health outcomes. By understanding healthy eating recommendations and the science behind them, you’ll be prepared to navigate emerging nutrition challenges and contribute to public health initiatives. Whether you aim to work in healthcare, policy making, or nutrition research, this module provides essential expertise for making a real-world impact on diet-related health issues.

Module Content:

1. Emerging concerns in nutrition and health.

2. Dietary factors in the aetiology and prevention of chronic diseases (eg. cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes).

3. Nutritional epidemiology and public health.

4. Nutrition needs of different groups, including eating behaviour and food choice.

5. Role of scientific advisory committees and regulatory agencies.

6. Healthy eating recommendations for the general public.

This module equips you with essential skills in nutritional and anthropometric assessment, teaching you how to evaluate a client’s dietary needs using research-backed methods and best-practice guidelines. You’ll master dietary assessment techniques, from gathering and interpreting dietary information to analysing the complex relationship between diet, health, and disease. Hands-on experience with dietary analysis software and biochemical assessments will sharpen your ability to assess nutritional status with precision. Additionally, you’ll explore nutritional anthropometry, learning how to measure weight, height, BMI, muscle mass, and body fat, while understanding their uses and limitations. Key screening tools like the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) will prepare you to identify and address nutritional risks effectively. This module is vital for those pursuing careers in nutrition, healthcare, and public health, ensuring you develop the analytical and practical skills needed to assess and improve nutritional health in diverse populations.

Module content:

1. Dietary Assessment:

• Obtaining and interpreting dietary information to assess nutritional/health status
• Obtaining and interpreting information about the interaction of diet, health and disease
• Use of dietary analysis software
• Biochemical assessment of nutritional status

2. Nutritional anthropometry. Uses and limitations of:

• Weight
• Height and Proxy measures for height etc.
• Indices e.g. Body Mass Index (BMI)
• Circumferences e.g. mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)
• Estimation of muscle
• Skinfolds and the assessment of body fat
• Screening tools using anthropometry e.g. Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST)

This module explores the dynamic and multidisciplinary field of public health promotion and policy, emphasising the critical evaluation of current developments, strategies, and research-driven approaches. You’ll examine food, nutrition, and health policies, both nationally and internationally, assessing their implications for practice and public health outcomes. A key focus is on policy planning, health surveillance, and determinants of health, as well as addressing inequalities in health and disease, including the links to food sustainability and environmental factors. You’ll also gain insight into health promotion theories and models, such as social marketing, behaviour change, and empowerment strategies, and learn how to apply these to nutrition interventions and community health initiatives. The module equips you with the ability to evaluate public health frameworks, assess policy effectiveness, and develop evidence-based health promotion strategies, preparing you for careers in public health nutrition, nutrition policy, and health advocacy.

The module aims to provide the student with:

1. a knowledge and systematic understanding of public food, nutrition and health policy, including the international influences on public policy formation in national governments, with implications for practice
2. an understanding of the re-orientation of public health services, current frameworks, standards and outcome measures in order to enable them to evaluate these 
3. the ability to critically assess implications of policy on health promotion and maintenance at a community level
4. an understanding of the different approaches to health promotion and application of these in relation to nutrition interventions
5. an enhanced understanding of health promotion theory and develop and evaluation practice in health promotion
6. an understaing of social marketing, market segmentation and how to apply this into practice in support of health promotion

Module Content:

• Public Health, Health surveillance, health policy and health improvement – goals and practice
• Overview of national and European food policies in the context of GATT and the WTO; Parallel aspects of food, social, environment and transport policy
• Overview of roles and legal context of national and European nutrition policies and action plans; Policy and strategy development and implementation
• Theory and practice of policy planning, within an international context, including the nature and significance of goals and targets
• Determinants of health
• Inequalities in health and disease – including links to food sustainability
• Definition, theories and models of health promotion: health beliefs, behaviour change, social marketing, empowerment, education
• Evaluation of health promotion practice

This module provides a comprehensive foundation in research methods and data analysis, equipping you with the skills to design, conduct, and interpret scientific research. You’ll explore different research types—analytical, descriptive, experimental, and qualitative—while mastering key concepts like hypotheses, variables, sampling, and measurement reliability. Learn how to collect and analyse data effectively, from experimental designs and surveys to case studies and qualitative research techniques. A strong emphasis on ethical research practices ensures you understand the responsibilities of scientific inquiry. You’ll also gain hands-on experience with SPSS software, learning to establish databases, transform variables, and apply statistical tests like ANOVA, t-tests, and chi-square analyses. By the end of the module, you’ll be able to critically evaluate research, apply statistical techniques, and use data-driven insights to inform decision-making—essential skills for careers in academia, healthcare, and scientific research.

This module provides an opportunity to conduct independent research, allowing you to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in your field of study. Working closely with a supervisor and research coordinator, you will design and execute a research project that aligns with your academic discipline. This involves identifying a research question, reviewing existing literature, selecting appropriate methodologies, and analysing data to generate meaningful insights. Through this process, you’ll develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and research skills, essential for academic and professional success. The module emphasises independent inquiry and evidence-based analysis, preparing you to engage with real-world challenges in your chosen field. By the end, you’ll have completed a rigorous, well-structured research project, demonstrating your ability to contribute valuable findings to your discipline—an essential competency for further study, professional research, or industry application.

This module provides a dynamic, seminar-based learning experience, bridging practical public health nutrition with academic theory. Through interactive discussions and portfolio development, you’ll refine your professional skills, communication abilities, and critical thinking in the context of real-world public health challenges. Seminar topics will evolve from aspects of the core modules delivered, emphasising integration and application within the field of nutrition. Association for Nutrition (AfN) portfolio development will be key features of the module and students will evaluate AfN Professional Standards as well as the Public Health Career Skills Framework.

In addition the role and work of other relevant professional bodies will be explored eg. The Nutrition Society, Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and Faculty of Public Health. The AfN Standards of Ethics, Conduct and Performance will also be addressed.

This programme will expose the students to a range of subject expertise and opinion on skills and topics that relate to the areas in public health nutrition. The module will allow for additional input (over and above the main curriculum) from external experts in specialist areas and in particular those areas of emerging interest. The module will entail a significant degree of reactivity to enable emerging issues to be addressed in their contemporary context.

This is a non-credit bearing module.