Food and Disease

FSE Campus Venlo

Food and Disease

Full course description

This course covers briefly the basics of normal nutrition for optimal health outcomes and focusses on evidence-based diets in the prevention of chronic metabolic diseases. Participants will learn the fundamentals of nutrition science, nutrient partitioning, storage and utilization. Focus will be on the role of diet and dietary intervention in the prevention of chronic metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardio-metabolic diseases.

Course objectives

To gain knowledge and insight in:

  • Nutrition (macro and-micronutrients), bioactive substances, anti-oxidants
  • Macronutrient digestion, partitioning and utilization
  • The main diet-related chronic diseases
  • Dietary recommendations
  • Novel and functional foods and their impact on human metabolism
  • Multifactorial problems like obesity and diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases, insight in the role of organs, including the gut microbiome, adipose tissue, liver and muscle, as well the interorgan crosstalk in their etiology
  • Impact of diet, lifestyle in the prevention of chronic metabolic diseases (mainly diet), including the role of energy restriction and intermittent fasting, non-caloric sweeteners and precision nutrition
  • Basic principles of the measurement of dietary intake, dietary status, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation and insulin sensitivity

Prerequisites

  • VSC1101 Introduction to Biology

Recommendations: VSC2205 Nutrition and Metabolism 

Recommended reading

This literature section only involves basic textbooks, more specific articles will be provided in the course manual.

Basic literature:

  • Insel P. -  Nutrition – 6th edtition - Jones and Bartlett publishers
  • Hall, J and Guyton A - Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology – 13th edition 
  • McArdle W.D., Katch F.I., Katch V.L - Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy and Human Performance  - 8th edition
  • Frayn, Keith N - Metabolic regulation: a human perspective – 3rd edition - Wiley-Blackwell Oxford 2010
  • Silverthorn, Dee Unlaub - Human Physiology: An Integrated Approach – 8th edtion - Pearson
  • Bray, G.A. & Bouchard, C. - Handbook of obesity – 3rd edition
VSC3208
Period 5
31 Mar 2025
23 May 2025
Print course description
ECTS credits: 
5.0
Coordinator:
Teaching methods: 
Lecture(s), PBL
Assessment methods: 
Attendance, Written exam, Presentation, Assignment