Course handout for the subject "NUTRITION AND FOOD"
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Date
2026
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Faculty of Sciences
Abstract
The subject title comprises two parts : - Nutrition : This is the science that represents the transformation and use of food in the human body. Physiologically speaking, it encompasses all the processes (assimilation, excretion, and respiration) that occur in a living organism, enabling the production of energy. - Food: This refers to the act of eating or the manner of eating. - Food: This is a digested substance, provided by food, that serves to nourish a living being (human) to ensure its growth, development, and good health.
It was therefore necessary to learn how to "eat well" because it is vital for ensuring a healthy and active life. Most people know very well that they need to eat to have the strength to work; however, the world doesn't have a clear idea of what eating well means.
The wise choice of a healthy diet, and therefore ensuring ideal nutrition, relies on nutritional education. This concept is essential from a young age and plays a crucial role in promoting good nutrition, especially in developing countries where nutritional knowledge is insufficient to meet the numerous rapid and profound economic and social challenges.
This educational course covers the basics of human nutrition and serves as an indispensable guide for third-year undergraduate students (L3) in Food Science, providing them with a significant and lasting nutritional foundation from both a theoretical and practical perspective.
The main objective of this educational document is to enable students in their final year of undergraduate studies in Food Science – Bachelor's degree in Agri-food and Quality Control – to acquire fundamental concepts in Nutrition and Food and their application to
their daily lives, both individually and in society. This means consolidating the key foundations of human health through proper nutrition and diet. Students will put the fundamental concepts covered in this course into practice, understanding the roles of different nutrients in the human body. They will evaluate their actual nutritional intake and then deduce the adequacy of their intake according to their needs, taking into account factors such as age, sex, weight, height, level of physical activity, climate, physiological state, and other factors that define their normal or pathological nutritional status. This will also explain how to address various nutritional problems or diseases such as malnutrition, diabetes, and other issues related to metabolic syndrome.
This course is an introduction to the methodology of Human Dietetics. It will provide students with fundamental knowledge of metabolic biochemistry, nutrition science, and, to a lesser extent, physio-nutrition. This foundational knowledge will enable them to propose balanced diets to healthy individuals for preventative purposes or to patients for therapeutic purposes, taking into account various metabolic situations.
The course's main objectives are:
• To acquire certain skills in nutrition and dietetics;
• To understand the different types of nutritional needs;
• To become familiar with the different food groups;
• To understand the roles of each nutrient (macro and micronutrients);
• To learn how to perform energy and nutritional calculations using food composition tables;
• To determine the daily intake of different nutrients;
• To explore nutrition and the various possible physiological states (including at-risk populations);
• To understand artificial nutrition;
• To assess nutritional status, fat mass, and lean mass;
• Recognize the different nutritional diseases;
• Learn about the main diseases of malnutrition.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the differences between nutrition and diet; between food and nutrients;
- Use recommended daily intakes and food composition tables to calculate daily nutrient intakes;
- Accurately compare intakes with requirements and identify necessary recommendations;
- Understand the various factors influencing basal metabolism and therefore the needs of each at-risk population;
- Define the causes, symptoms, and solutions of some metabolic nutritional diseases or malnutrition;
- Calculate observed daily intakes, basal metabolism, and certain nutritional indices such as Body Mass Index (BMI)