Food and Health

Recommended Prerequisites

The  recommended  prerequisites  include  what  is  taught  in  the  1  st  cycle  courses  in  the  area  of  Pharmacy, Medicine, Veterinary, Nutrition, and Agricultural, Bioanalytical, Biological, Chemical Sciences or Engineering or other courses considered appropriate by the FFUC Scientific Council.

Teaching Methods

Teaching is delivered in a hybrid format, integrating both in-person and synchronous online activities to ensure equitable participation for all students. Classes take place in equipped rooms and using the UC Student platform, providing an inclusive and high-quality simultaneous learning experience. Theoretical classes are lecture-based, with a strong emphasis on dialogue and the application of practical case studies, mainly using visual resources. Independent or tutorial study involves reading the recommended bibliography and the materials provided by the instructors.

Learning Outcomes

Enable the student to be able to identify types of food components, including the desirable constituents (water, proteins,  lipids,  carbohydrates,  vitamins  and  minerals,  and  substances  flavor,  texture  and  substance  of  the endogenous antioxidant system) as well as the constituents that may damage of the individual health; group the foods according to their nutritional characteristics and to its labeling; identify the  factors that influence eating habits; feeding practices related to health; identify the major dietary errors and the main nutritional problems in Portugal.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Brief history of food.

The Food of the Portuguese People: characterization.

Food Guides: food wheel, food pyramid, food scale.

Table of Composition of Portuguese Foods.

Functional Foods: the case of phytosterols.

Assessment of Nutritional Status / Anthropometry.

Food Supplements: definition and legal framework, regulatory and supervisory bodies, frontier products, classification.

Dietary supplements containing medicinal plants: risk/benefit analysis, possibility of plant-drug interactions.

Mediators of sensations in food.

Head Lecturer(s)

Angelina Lopes Simões Pena

Assessment Methods

Final Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Continuous Assessment
Synthesis work: 30.0%
Exam: 70.0%

Bibliography

Aileen Robertson (2004) Food and  health  in Europe:  a new basis for action, WHO, Regional Publications European Series, 96

Ian Givens, A. M. Minihane, E. Shaw (2008) Health Benefits of Organic Food: Effects of the Environment, CABI Publishing

A. Gonçalves Ferreira (2005) Nutrição Humana. 3ª ed., Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

Hans-Dieter Belitz, Werner Grosch, Peter Schieberle (2010) Food Chemistry, 4th Ed. Springer

Katherine L. Tucker et al. (2024) Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 12th Ed., Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.

Sarah J. Pitt, Alan Gunn (2024) The One Health Concept. Br. J. Biomed. Sci., 81:12366

Srinivasan Damodaran, Kirk L. Parkin eds. (2017) Fennema's Food Chemistry, 5th Ed. Routledge

Susan A. Lanham-New et al., eds. (2019) Introduction to Human Nutrition,  3rd Ed. Wiley

Tammy J. Stephenson, Megan R. Sanctuary, Caroline W. Passerrello (2024) Human Nutrition: Science for Healthy Living, 4th Ed., 2024 Release. McGraw-Hill