78799 - Nutritional Physiology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows: the physiological role of nutrients; the physiology of the motor, secretory and absorption functions of the human digestive system; energy consumption and nutritional needs in basal conditions, during physical exercise and in other physiological conditions; the nervous and hormonal mechanisms involved in the regulation of food intake; the water balance and the nervous mechanisms that regulate water intake; the methods for assessing the nutrition status.

Course contents

Functions of the digestive system

Motor and secretory functions of the digestive system

Nervous control of the functions of the digestive system: enteric nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation, reflex activity. Ormonal control of the functions of the digestive system. Chewing. Salivary secretion. Swallowing. Gastric motility and secretion. Vomit. Pancreatic and biliary secretion. Emptying of the gallbladder. Motility and secretions of the small and large intestine. Defecation.

Digestion and absorption

Digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Absorption of water, alcohol, vitamins and minerals.

Functions of the intestinal microbiota

Stimulation of the immune system. Defense against exogenous bacteria. Digestion of nutrients not otherwise digestible. Synthesis of vitamins. Metabolism of estrogens and procarcinogens. Role of the microbiota in obesity. Prebiotics and probiotics.

Energy metabolism, nutritional requirements and food homeostasis

Energy metabolism

Energy metabolism and factors affecting it. Basal metabolism. Direct and indirect calorimetry. Predictive equations, evaluation of substrate oxidation and their applications. Energy consumption in physical exercise.

Nutritional requirement

Nutritional needs in particular physiological conditions: in infancy, adolescence, exercise, pregnancy, breastfeeding, old age.

Regulation of food and water intake

Neural centers and hormonal factors involved in the regulation of food intake. Body weight regulation. Regulation of water intake and water balance. Mechanism of thirst.

Nutrition status assessment

Body composition analysis: anthropo-plicometry, bioimpedance analysis and their applications. Techniques for food intake detection: applications and limits.

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

- E. Carbone, G. Aicardi, R. Maggi - Fisiologia: dalle molecole ai sistemi integrati (seconda edizione), EdiSES, 2018.

L. Debellis, A. Poli - Alimentazione, nutrizione e salute, EdiSES, 2019.

- A. Di Giulio, A. Lorenzini, M. Malaguti - Principi di Nutrizione, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana, 2024 (volume 1 della collana: Alimentazione per lo sport e il benessere).

- W.D. Mcardle, F.I. Katch, V.L. Katch - Fisiologia applicata allo sport: aspetti energetici, nutrizionali e performance (terza edizione), Casa Editrice Ambrosiana, 2018.

Teaching methods

Lessons with the help of Power Point presentations.

Didactic materials (presentations with written text) prepared ad hoc by the teacher (in pdf format), will be made available in the Virtual environment, as well as articles from scientific journals published in open access and videos of the lessons recorded with the Panopto system (video-lesson) provided at the end of the lesson and available throughout the Academic Year in the Virtual environment.


This teaching participates to the model of integrative digital teaching.

Assessment methods

Oral exam with questions on the course contents. The final vote of the integrated course will be the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts (Physiology of Nutrition and Nutritional Biochemistry).

Teaching tools

Power Point presentations, Virtuale, Panopto

Office hours

See the website of Fiorenza Stagni