SPRT2451: Nutrition for Sport and Health

• SPRT1311 Introduction to Physical Activity, Diet and Health

• None

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• To build upon students' underpinning knowledge of diet and health and critically apply this to the field of nutrition for special populations within sport, and health;
• Enable students to evaluate dietary requirements and determinants, along with contemporary nutritional strategies for athletes across a range of populations and sports, for positive health and well-being, and for mitigation of adverse health and wellbeing;
• Build transferrable skills in communication of nutrition science to a range of audiences and develop a critical understanding of key laboratory and field-based techniques in applied nutrition, along with interpretation of associated outcomes.

• This module will be delivered in two blocks:
• Nutrition for health, which will cover: dietary recommendations and interventions for health and well-being for example obesity, bone health, diabetes, mental health;
• Sport and exercise nutrition which will cover: metabolic processes and nutrient function within sport nutrition, and applied sport nutrition and professional practice examples.
• Both blocks will cover the collection of nutritional information in research and practice (for example recalling and recording of food intake, assessment of body composition and physical activity) and nutritional considerations for special populations (for example children, vegetarian athletes)

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Compare and contrast nutritional strategies for overall health and athlete performance across various populations including the appropriate assessment of nutritional status;
• Explain nutrient metabolism and function in sport nutrition and apply this understanding to practical and real-world settings;

Subject-specific Skills:

• Practice competent and professional laboratory skills within the disciplines of nutrition, physical activity and health.

Key Skills:

• Apply evidence-based research methodologies to analyse, interpret, evaluate and communicate nutritional information and contemporary literature in the field;
• Demonstrate verbal communication skills;
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills and science communication principles when interpreting information.

• Lectures will provide theoretical principles relevant to sport, and health-based nutrition.
• Seminar-style activities and directed learning tasks will afford students the opportunity to engage with supporting material such as empirical journal articles and systematic reviews.
• Laboratory sessions will consolidate learning from lecture sessions whilst providing an opportunity for students to practice applied techniques and develop vocational skills relevant to the professional nutritionist.
• The assessment strategy will comprise one formative and two summative components addressing relevant learning outcomes:
• One summative assessment (50%) will consist of a small group presentation whereby students will prepare and pitch a nutrition strategy for a case study of their choice to a specified audience. Students also will have an individual element to the presentation. The other summative assessment (50%) will focus on science communication, via a 500 word lay piece of writing, related to one of a choice of research articles provided by academic tutors.
• Formative Assessment will feed directly into the presentation summative assessment through preparation of a draft presentation plan (verbal and written tutor feedback). For the other summative, ongoing verbal feedback will be provided by tutors during dedicated preparatory seminar activities.

For the first summative, ongoing feedback will be provided by tutors during dedicated online sessions. Formative Assessment will feed directly into the second summative assessment through verbal feedback on planning. This will be provided to each group during a dedicated in-person laboratory session

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