Biology of Nutrition

Aims of the course are: (i) the understanding of how a correct nutritional state is important in order to assure an optimal health state and to compensate the energy expenditure related physical activity; (ii) the knowledge of principles at the basis of an optimal and healthy diet according to scientific national (LARN and National guidelines) and international guidelines (EFSA) and to deal with physical and sport activity; (iii) the knowledge of the features and properties of the various nutrients required in a balanced diet; (iv) the knowledge and understanding of the concepts and procedures of statistics applied to biomedical sciences, including hypothesis testing in the analysis of continuous and categorical variables, correlation and regression.

At the end of the course, students should know principles for defining a dietary scheme and to critically analyze some of the most common dietary regimes. Through specific practical exercises, students should have become able to know and select most appropriate sources of energetic nutrients and their best assortment to compose diets suited for specific type of physical activities and sports. Students should have become able to know pros and cons of dietary supplements. Moreover, students are expected to become able to know the usefulness of linear and non-linear regression and how to apply it to generate predictive models. By means of examples of application of statistics to nutritional topics, students should have become able to interpret the results of statistical analyses published in the biomedical literature, and should have acquired the ability to select the best statistical approach to analyze different datasets.