Human Nutrition

Uncover the powerful links between diet, health, and disease, and explore advances in nutrition, sustainability, public health, and clinical practice. We provide hands-on experience through lab work and place a focus on your professional development.

Course description

This accredited programme strikes a unique balance between theory, practice and professional skills in human nutrition. It covers the latest topics in nutrition to provide comprehensive training for working as a nutritionist, a career in food and nutrition, or further study.

You’ll start by studying the fundamentals of nutritional science, including nutritional biochemistry and physiology. You’ll explore how the human body responds to the food we eat and the body’s nutritional requirements across the life cycle. Your studies will take you from the classroom to the lab, with hands-on practical sessions exploring the measurement of energy balance, energy expenditure, body mass, body composition, and food composition. You’ll also spend time out in the community, interacting with members of the public to understand their nutritional needs.

You’ll go on to explore the complex relationship between diet, health and disease, and how conditions such as metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders can be prevented or managed through dietary changes. The course also covers public health nutrition, the importance of nutrition for sustainability and how sustainable food systems can be created. Throughout the course, time is also devoted to developing the professional skills that nutritionists need and you will be able to learn from practising nutritionists who work in a variety of fields.

The biggest part of the course will be your dissertation project, which is designed to give you valuable experience of all stages of the research process. You will be able to explore topics and research methods that most interest you, working alongside an experienced member of our human nutrition research team.

Intercalation

This course is accredited by the Association for Nutrition. Candidates who successfully complete the MSc can apply for direct entry as Registered Associate Nutritionists on the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists, held by AfN.