Food Studies II

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Balance between theoretical lessons given by professors, always conducted based on the reading of academic papers, and classes which require the active participation of doctoral students through the presentation of research.

Learning Outcomes

. Understand the importance of nutrition in wellness and health and contextualize food intake in energy homeostasis.

. Understand the effects of a high fat diet and physical inactivity, and other environmental factors on the development of various diseases. 

. Analyze the problem of globalization of food production and consumption and the subordination of regional food production, habits and culture, traditional food, such as the Mediterranean diet.

- Characterize the role of communication in contemporary societies for the creation and fight for the recognition of identities;

- Understand the potential and dystopias of new media;

- Analyze the relationship between power and communication;

- Develop research tools that provide the necessary mastery of appropriate methodological tools for research students propose to do in the field of nutrition.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Module 1: Nutrition: Biodiversity and health

1. Energy balance, components and regulation.

2. Changes in lifestyle (high fat diet and sedentary lifestyle), and energy imbalance adiposopathy.

3. Adiposopathy consequences on obesity: metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

4. Chemical/environmental contaminants, particularly in food, and increased susceptibility to diseases.

5. Traditional and modern food; diet as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in Western societies.

6. Mediterranean diet as a healthy dietary model: longevity and preventive and therapeutic effects

Module 2: Nutrition and Communication

1. Communication and Identity

2. The research on communication in the context of the Social Sciences and Humanities and the specifics of the communication field;

3. Textuality in the media: from traditional to new media;

4. The influence of communication on the representations of food in the public space.

Head Lecturer(s)

Raquel Maria Fino Seiça

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Writing and in-class presentation of small research reports: 30.0%
Research work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Mahan LK ; Escott-Stump S (Eds.) (2004). Krause’S Food, Nutrition & Diet Therapy, Elsevier, USA.

Buchanan, D. (2012) Taste, Memory - Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavours and Why they Matter. Chelsea: Chelsea Green Publishing

Cramer, J. (2011) Food as Communication, Communication as Food. New York: Peter Lang Publishing

Floyd, J.; Forster, L., (2003) The Recipe Reader. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Frye, J.; Bruner, M., (2012) The Rhetoric of Food. New York: Routledge

Parasecoli, F. (2008) Bite Me, Food in Popular Culture. New York: Berg

Rosseau, S. (2013) Food Media. London: Bloomsbury

Sutton, D., (2001) Remembrance of Repasts, An Anthropology of Food and Memory. Oxford: Berg

Vodeb, O. (2017) Food Democracy. Critical Lessons in Food, Communication and Art. Bristol: Intellect.