26^th Global Nutritionists Week

Nutrition is the science which deals with the intake of nutrients and other substances which are responsible for growth, maintenance, metabolism, repair and survival of the body or simply said as the process of nourishing in relation to the body’s dietary needs. In order to protect us from various diseases we need a good, nutritious diet. Nutrients are chemical substances which are necessary for life, basically they are divided into 6 classes and they are: Carbohydrates, lipids (fats), vitamins, proteins, minerals, water.

A balanced diet can be taken from both plants and animal sources; a good diet is important for every individual especially for children under two years. Usually at this age children will become malnourished if proper diet is not provided. The nutrition guidelines have information which is globally accepted to defeat malnutrition.

• Principles of nutrition
• Role of nutrition for good health
• Role of nutritionist
• Balanced diet
• Nutrition guide lines

Vitamins are organic compounds which are essential to maintain health; Multivitamin/multi mineral supplements contain three or more vitamins and/or minerals without herbs, hormones or drugs. Commercial supplements contain vitamins/minerals at doses that are close to recommended dietary allowances. 97% of registered dietitians or nutritionists recommend multivitamin supplements for the patients for their health and wellness. A few vitamins which present in the multivitamin formula are calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, folate, B6, vitamin C, magnesium etc.

·         Types of vitamins

·         Role of vitamins in maintaining health

·         Effects of multivitamin supplements

Minerals are inorganic substances containing amino group and a carboxylic group which humans need to maintain their health. Amino acids are organic compounds which combine to form protein. When proteins are digested, amino acids are left which are used by our body to repair body tissue and other body functions like synthesis of hormones or neurotransmitters. Our body also uses amino acids as the source of energy. Essential amino acid, non-essential and conditional amino acids are three types of amino acids. Essential amino acids come from food while non-essential amino acids can be produced by our body. Amino acids can help improve mood and sleep, can boost physical performance, can prevent muscle loss and may promote weight loss.

• Mineral metabolism
• Role of minerals in diet
• Role of amino acids in building protein
• peptides

Malnutrition is a condition which results due to the diet which is inadequate or excess than the basic nutrient requirement causing health problems. Malnutrition has become an urgent global health issue with under nutrition killing or disabling millions of children every year. Severe malnutrition accounts nearly 1 million deaths annually. Lot of theories has to be proposed to maintain food practices to avoid malnutrition. Parents should acquire knowledge in feeding their babies with balanced diet to avoid malnutrition. Studies said that girl child has been affected more than the boy child due to malnutrition.

• Wasting
• Stunting
• Underweight
• Micronutrient deficiencies

Pediatric nutrition deals with the nutrient intake of children of age 6 months to 6 years and especially for infants. It deals with the well balanced diet requirements at the various stages of child’s development. Breast feeding has more healthy ingredients which builds baby’s immune system, than any other food intake. Introducing of solid foods should be done only after 6 months. Dairy products should include in the diet to provide calcium levels intake. Iron levels are also to be maintained for good immunity power.

• pediatrics and therapeutics
• premature infant feeding
• nutrition for growing child
• breast feeding
• pediatrics care and nursing

Women have special nutrient needs and during each stage of women’s life these needs changes. The nutrition and energy needs of women are important for growth, healthy development and maturation during adolescence, during pregnancy and breast feeding. Women diet should include calcium, iron, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. the use of these nutrients is based on the age of women, for example, two nutrients important for girls in childhood and early teens are calcium and iron, nutrition during pregnancy period are folic acid, B12, choline, omeg3s, vitamin D, calcium and iron, nutrition during old age are calcium, B12, fluids. A healthy diet is important during breastfeeding because the mother must able to provide for her own nutrient requirements and as well as the production of breast milk for child, dairy products and foods rich in calcium are to be consumed during this period.

• Nutrition during Adolescence
• Nutrition during pregnancy
• Nutrition during breastfeeding
• Menstruation - diet

Sports nutrition not only deals with the supplement intake during exercise, but also the total intake of entire day. The daily intake will have a huge impact on muscle growth, performance, mood, sleep and energy levels. Sports nutrition is mainly focused on the food intake by an athlete, which deals with the consumption of various substances like vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and proteins. Depending on the sport, athlete has to consider a wide range of nutrients and vitamins. Foods which contain harsh chemicals show harmful effects on athlete, so these should be totally avoided.

• Performance enhancing supplements
• Energy supplements
• Protein supplements for recovery
• Energy drinks

Nutrition in plants and animals is the act of providing nutrients to their body cells to perform daily activities and are required to keep them alive. Food is the basic thing for survival of both plants and animals. Plants are autotrophs so; Plant nutrition is basically depends on the types of nutrients the plant gets from the soil and energy intake through photosynthesis. Plants usually take nutrition in the form of inorganic forms. Plants usually convert carbon dioxide in to glucose water and oxygen. On the other side animals are heterotrophs which say they can’t produce food on their own and have to depend on plants or other animals. Animal nutrients are highly focused on their dietary requirements for the growth and maintenance.

• Autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition
• Sources of plant nutrients
• Sources of animal nutrients
• Nutrition deficiency in plants and animals

Nutrification is the process of enriching the foods to fulfill all the incomplete nutrients to make a major contribution of diet. Fortification is a part of nutrification which deals with the adding of micronutrients to the food which lack particular nutrients due to the type of soil and were lost during the manufacturing. Fortification is of three types- industrial fortification, bio fortification and home fortification. Nutrification is recommended to improve the quality of nutrients and to provide public health benefit with minimal risk factor.

•  methods of food enriching
•  food fortification
• recommended guide lines for food fortification
• effects of food fortification

Functional foods are the advanced and improved formula of basic food/nutrition. Functional foods show positive effects more than the basic nutrition and reduce the risk of diseases. Neutraceuticals are fortified food products which help in treating or preventing diseases. Neutraceuticals are standardized nutrients which do not come under normal food category but it comes under dietary or supplements category.

• Benefits of functional foods
• Plant and animal sources of functional foods
• Absorption and metabolism
• Extraction of Nutraceuticals from diary

Nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics say about the relationship between nutrition, human genes and health.  Nutrigenetics is the science of the effect of genetic variation on dietary response. On the other hand, Nutrigenomics is defined as the science of the role/effects of nutrients in gene expression at the molecular level. The science of nutrigenetics is involved in the mechanism, by which genetic variations define the individual’s risk of diseases, metabolic response and diet requirement. Nutrigenomics usually deals with the prevention or treatment of diseases. Nutrigenomics provides a simple understanding of how the chemicals in our food affect health by disturbing the gene expression and individual’s genome. There’s a risk of developing diseases, such as cancer. Generally nutrigenomics enhance the nutrition with respect to the genotype and how the body responds to the diet.

• Effect of nutrition on gene expression
• Mechanism of genetic variation
• Nutritional deficiency and genome damage
• applications

Nutrition with good balanced diet is very important for women during pregnancy as it shows the results on both mother and baby. Nutrition maintains the health of woman and nourishes the fetus. It will help the baby to get required nutrients; these nutrients are helpful to fuel the baby’s growth and maintain healthy body weight in the future. Complete nutritional diet should be taken before, during and after the pregnancy. At times one should avoid few foods to reduce the risk of side effects. One should avoid alcohol during pregnancy as it shows some adverse effects on developing fetus.

• Physiological changes during pregnancy
• Diet during pregnancy
• Physiology of lactation
• Diet regarding to breastfeeding
• Nutrition for both mother and baby

Nutrition plays a crucial role in taking care of diabetes. The patient should maintain the right amount of carbohydrates, fat, proteins along with vitamins and minerals, along with these one should take care of amount of glucose intake. The right choice of nutrition helps to maintain the blood sugar level. A common diabetes diet plan is rich in nutrients and low in fats and calories. Insulin is the special supplement to be taken along with the food to maintain or control the blood sugar levels. One can add fruits, vegetables and nuts to their diet plan. Maintaining a vegan diet can be a healthy addition for people with diabetes. The important key point is to avoid carbohydrates which will convert into glucose during digestion.

•  Pathophysiology of diabetes
• Diabetes and metabolism
• Diet for diabetes
• treatment

Nutrition not only deals with nutrients intake, but it should also deals with the avoiding of certain foods which affects our body and develops diseases.  It includes obesity, eating disorders and chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, osteoporosis etc. among them chronic diseases are widely caused due to improper nutrition.

• Role of nutrition in disease management
• Chronic diseases
• Strategies for the prevention of diseases
• Treatment of diseases

Nutrient metabolism defines the molecular fate of nutrients and other dietary compounds in humans as well as outlining the molecular basis of process supporting nutrition, such as appetite control and chemical sensing and also endocrine, reproductive, metabolic and nutritional disorders. The transformation of macronutrients carbohydrates, proteins and fats in food to energy and many other physiological processes are all part of metabolic process. It mainly focuses on the presentation of nutritional biochemistry. The metabolic pathways are not closed systems. Many of the substrates, intermediates and products in a specific pathway are reactants in other pathways. Proteins are hydrolyzed by variety of enzymes.

• Nutrient metabolism
• Chemical sensing
• Appetite control
• Absorption, digestion and further functions

Good nutrition alone will not make us a healthy individual, nutrition along with physical activity and healthy body weight will have some healthy effects on our body. Individuals having healthy weight are less likely to develop chronic diseases such as blood pressure and heart diseases. Maintaining nutrition, physical activity and healthy body weight can help decrease in risk of developing high blood pressure and high cholesterol and cancer. Just nutrition excluding physical activity will lead to develop obesity.

• Maintain healthy weight
• Improve mood and energy level
• Reducing mental stress
• Strengthening muscle, bones and joints
• Reducing the risk of heart diseases and cancer

Feeding the food through the gastrointestinal tract into the stomach to provide required calorie intake is known as enteral nutrition. On the other hand parenteral nutrition refers to the injecting of nutrients and calories directly into the veins. Parenteral nutrition is bit risky as compared to the enteral nutrition due to the sensitivity of veins. It may disturb the biochemistry and may cause blood infections. Enteral nutrition is easier, cheaper and less complicated compared to the parenteral nutrition. The choice of providing enteral nutrition or parenteral nutrition depends on the health condition of individual. In both the types of feedings/injecting’s the delivery rate should be maintained, the fast delivery rate can create some serious problems.

• Catheters
• Type of food/nutrition
• Nutrition according to the medical condition
• Home parenteral nutrition

A weight management technique gives long-term goals which promote healthy life style and physical activity. Some people refer body weight management as energy balance. This balance has to be maintained between the amount of calories intake and amount of calories you have burnt in the daily activity of exercises. If the calories intake is higher than the calories burned then one will gain weight, if the calorie intake is lesser than the calories burned then one will lose weight. Weight management could be planned according to the body mass index (BMI). One gram of protein per one pound of body weight is the intake per day to gain body weight during exercise. Perfect body weight leads to a healthy life style and relief from the mental stress.

• BMI- Body mass index
• Fat percentage in the body
• Calories intake
• Abnormal obesity
• Physical activity
• Weight loss supplements

Obesity is usually defined as abnormal medical condition with excessive fat accumulation which may damage health. Mostly it affects children and early teenagers. If proper diet is not followed, these children are more likely to become obese adults. Eating too much unhealthy food and not exercising will cause obesity. According to a survey in 2013, 42 million children were suffering with obesity and expected to reach 70 million young children in 2025. Obesity in childhood is associated with a wide range of serious health issues and increased risk of diabetes, fatigue, bone and joint problems and heart diseases. Studies shown that effected individual may die up to 3-7 years early than the healthy weight individuals. A proper nutrition and diet and exercising is the best way to reduce the overweight.

• Calories intake
• Obesogenic environments
• Complications of childhood obesity
• Psychological difficulties of obesity

Allergies are a number of symptoms caused by hypersensitivity of immune system due to harmless substances from the environment. Basically this depends on the strength of immune system and the type of body. The most common type of allergies is food and dust allergy. The common food types which cause allergy are milk, eggs, nuts, soy and fish. The symptoms are itching, sneezing, nasal discomfort, rashes, reddened skin, running nose, scratchy throat, eye irritation. Allergy is mainly depending on nutrition intake. The more proper diet we take the strong immune system will be and the more we are tolerant to allergies. The lack of functioning of immune system is due to the improper intake of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Some substances which are present in food may cause allergy because the reactions they trigger in the body are not suitable for the immune system so, one should avoid such type of foods.

• Childhood asthma allergy
• Food allergy
• Maintaining Hygienic atmosphere
• Diagnosis and preventive measures

Cellular and molecular nutrition is defined as the application of cellular and molecular approaches to the study of nutrition. Cellular and molecular studies provide better understanding about the origin and mechanism of diseases. These studies are helpful in discovering and inventing new techniques in preventing, curing and controlling of diseases. Generally it describes how nutrients affect the functioning of cells and DNA.

• Metabolism of Lipids, carbohydrates and proteins
• DNA studies
• Nutrigenomics and gene expression
• Metabolism of vitamins and minerals

Nutritional toxicology is the branch which connects nutrition and toxicology. The three sub topics which can relate are- influence of nutrition on toxicities influence of toxicities on nutrition, toxicity of nutrients. Nutritional toxicology focuses on chemicals in food which have potential to produce adverse health effects. Nutritional toxicology includes basic toxicology where nutritional aspects and the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are discussed.

• Food safety assessment
• Toxicity of some nutrients
• Naturally occurring toxicants
• Food additives and contaminants

Nutritional microbiology is the scientific study of effects of microorganisms on food and nutrition. Probiotics are living organisms that, when consumed have health benefits apart from their inherent nutritional effects. Fermentation is the way in which microorganisms can change a food. Yeast, especially is used to make bread, beer and wine. Food safety is the major focus in food microbiology; toxins produced by microorganisms are contaminants of food. Biopolymers such as polysaccharides produced by microorganisms are used in food industry.

• Food safety
• Probiotics
• Fermentation
• Microbial biopolymers

Nutritional endocrinology deals with the functioning of endocrine gland with respect to the nutritional deficiencies. Endocrinology is the study of physiology and medicine concerned with the structure, function and disorders of endocrine glands and hormones. Proper nutrition plays a key role in controlling or regulating hormones. Nutrients provide nutrition to each organ and gland to function in a proper way. Without nutritional balance our body will be unable to produce energy required for metabolism. The most common type of endocrine disorder is polycystic ovary syndrome. Thyroid disorders are raised due to the iodine deficiency.

• Endocrine disorders
• Hormone regulation
• Effect of insulin and growth hormone
• Treatment for endocrine disorders

Even though they sound similar, they two play different roles for our health. Probiotics are live bacteria found in food and supplements which provide numerous health benefits. Probiotics will help us to protect us from various harmful bacteria and fungi. On the other side prebiotics are type of fiber comes from carbs which are very hard to digest for humans so the beneficial bacteria present in our gut will consume prebiotics. Legumes, beans, peas, bananas, oats, garlic and onions belong to prebiotics.

• Benefits of gut bacteria
• Effect of food on gut micro biota
• Prebiotic and probiotic foods
• Probiotic supplements
• Influence of micro biota on health

The field of research regarding to the nutrition and cancer is of very wide range. A new discovery says that 30-40% of cancer can be cured by maintaining proper diet and healthy body weight. A particular research has been going on nutrients and their relation in tumor regression at the specific site of the body.

• Diet during cancer
• Therapeutic cancer treatment
• Nutrition therapy for cancer
• Anorexia and cachexia
• Use of dietary supplements

The risk for heart diseases, cardiac arrest and strokes can be reduced by maintaining healthy diet and lifestyle. Risk factors related to food include obesity, diabetes etc. high fiber, low fat and plant diet can reduce the risk of having cardio vascular diseases. Saturated fats increase the cholesterol in blood and rate of heart attacks. Trans or saturated fats can increase the LDL-bad cholesterol in the body. Sodium intake should be in less quantity to reduce the risk of having cardiac diseases.

• Risk factors of heart diseases
• Cholesterol levels
• DASH diet
• Whole grains and dietary fibers

Nutritional epidemiology could be regarded as a sub-discipline of epidemiology, which provides a specific expertise that is also an integral part of nutritional sciences. As a sub-discipline of epidemiology, the overall definition of epidemiology will also hold for nutritional epidemiology.

• Meta-analysis
• Randomized control trials
• Dietary assessment
• Estimation of nutritional exposure

Nutritional neuroscience is the scientific discipline which studies the effect of minerals, vitamins, proteins and other dietary supplements on the neurochemistry and cognition. It has long been said that the presence of specific nutrients can affect cognitive processes. Having knowledge of effects of food on the cognition will help us to determine the proper balance in diet in order to increase the resistance of neurons. The ingestion of specific foods can trigger the release of hormones or peptides such as insulin and glucagon in to the circulation and will reach centers such as hypothalamus and hippocampus and activate signals that promote activity and thus contributing to learning and memory. Several antioxidant diets have become popular for their positive effects on neural functions.

• Cognitive neuroscience
• Brain food
• Nutrient biomarkers
• Holistic dietary patterns

Precision nutrition aims to prevent or control chronic diseases and metabolic disorders by customizing dietary patterns. Recent advances in genomics and micro biome technologies have provide new opportunities in the use of precision nutrition to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes. Precision nutrition has the potential to provide personalized guidance for more effective prevention of type 2diabetes.  Genetically modified foods are also a part of precision nutrition; these can be used for the betterment of health.

• Dietary assessment
• Nutrition strategy
• Intermittent fasting
• Weight loss

Medical nutrition therapy is a therapeutic approach to treat medical conditions and their associated symptoms via customized diet. The diet will depend upon patient’s medical record and dietary history. It is simply said as the use of specific nutrition services to treat illness, disease or injury. Medical nutrition is useful to the patients suffering with cancer, diabetes, eating disorders, food allergies, gastrointestinal disorders, immune system disorders. Dietitians and nutritionists are an essential part of this multidisciplinary field. Medical nutrition therapy can help patients recover more quickly and spend less time in the hospital. It is also known as nutrition therapy.

• Nutritional assessment
• Nutrition diagnosis
• Nutrition intervention
• Nutrition monitoring and evaluation

Public health nutrition mainly focuses on the promotion of good health through nutrition and the primary prevention of nutrition related illness in the public population or simple known as science which helps in promoting the health status of the country by making changes in the food nutrition system. It focuses on the issues of dietary needs of public. The duty of public health nutritionist is to identify nutritional problems within community, develop a strategy to improve nutrition and to develop diet plans.

• Population health
• Nutrition deficiencies
• Disease diagnosis
• Implementation of programs

Nutrition and education are interlinked with each other. The behavior of eating is important in nutrition through which nutrients enter the body and show their effects on physiology, metabolism and health. The nutrients which we intake in the form of food can show effects on our brain and can affect our behavior. The roles of culture and biology can determine what food people eat and their behavior; in turn behavioral science has made a huge contribution in defining the mechanisms responsible for food choice. Well described behavioral science involves the application of objective scientific principles to the study of eating behavior. In recent years, behavioral science has engaged with the fields of energy balance and physical activity.

• Physical activity behavior
• Intervention outcomes
• Food environment