Nutrition, metabolism and body weight

The unit will build on your knowledge of body systems acquired in year 2. You will commence with an exposition of the major nutrient groups, their digestion, absorption, intracellular processing, metabolism and storage. This will lead you on to a consideration of the ways in which stored nutrients are retrieved and of nutrient and energy fluxes within the body. You will learn how the body senses food intake and nutrient/ energy stores at both the peripheral and central levels, as well as the physiological regulation of appetite and body weight. You will study common and important disorders including obesity, metabolic diseases and diabetes. You will develop understanding of the measurement of body mass and body composition, determination of food preferences, mechanisms of dysregulation of body mass, and interactions of disordered metabolism with the endocrine, cardiovascular and reproductive systems. You will finally consider the role of public information and therapeutic interventions including a consideration of alternative therapies from the perspective of evidence-based practice in the efficacy of weight loss strategies and treatment for cardiometabolic disease.