Welcome to the Fundamentals of Human Nutrition.
I'm your instructor and I'm excited to guide you through this course and help
you learn the basics of human nutrition and nutritional science.
When it comes to the science of nutrition, we are what we eat.
In this course, you'll learn exactly what that means and how nutrition drives
growth and development, as well as sustains life.
We'll look primarily at the biochemical concepts of nutrition, but we'll review
how malnutrition is related to disease. Think about this word, malnutrition.
Maybe the first image that comes to mind is that of a starving child failing to
thrive. But malnutrition is more than that.
Mal or bad, poor improper nutrition can manifest in many ways, and have many
causes. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies, protein
imbalances, nutrient toxicities, excess intake, malabsorption, or
overelimination, nutrient storage or processing abnormalities, and even
genetic mutations and polymorphism can all be contributors to malnutrition.
In addition to conditions like marasmus and kwashiorkor, we can consider
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and obesity as related to malnutrition.
Diseases like rickets, osteoporosis Beriberi, pellegra, and anemia are
manifestations of micronutrient malnutrion.
Even toxicity diseases like hemochromatosis are caused by excess
intake, or by impaired processing can be considered a form of malnutrition.
When we think about preventing and treating malnutrition, it may just be a
matter of what you do or do not need to eat.
But, it may be a person to person challenge, especially when you're dealing
with genetic conditions or compounding diseases.
In this course, you'll gain a better understanding of how one might get to the
malnourished state, why we need the nutrients we do, and how balanced
nutrition fuels the body while chronic malnutrition leads to disease.
I'll also discuss how we inform the public as to what they need to eat and
how we determine specific requirements. Nutrition is an integral part of the life
of any organism, from the simple to the complex.
When we focus on human nutrition, we'll see how the addition of our minds and
cultures play a role in what we eat. We do not all only eat to survive as our
animal co-inhabitants. In addition, the food we're eating, both
plant and animal in origin, depends on what it eats.
The nutrients it recieves, processes, or is able to synthesize.
We'll use various learning tools throughout the course to give you
opportunities to learn from me, the course material, related content, as well
as from each other. One tool that will serve to both teach
you and assess your understanding of each topic we cover and how these tie together
is the mind map. Within the fundamentals of human
nutrition, we will learn about the macronutrients, the micronutrients, their
categories, and components. We'll discuss metabolism, including the
processing, utilization, and elimination of what we eat. Malnutrition, whether
from a lack of eating properly or from problems in the body, and nutrition over
the lifespan. We'll go into the details and
complexities of the nutritional model. But at the core of all of this, I'll keep
reminding you, we are what we eat. And you'll get a chance to fill in the
details as you go through this course. I hope you enjoy this course.
And not only learn about the science of nutrition, finish your mind map, but are
able to use this information in your own life and work, as well as helping and
educating others.