Effective dietary counseling is difficult within the constraints of a primary healthcare clinic—and yet, poor nutrition and obesity play significant roles in every day health issues.

This module provides you with the basic concepts of nutrition, the connection between nutrition and illness, and an understanding of the risk factors of obesity, along with its complications and treatment principles. You will learn about popular diets and their evidenced-based health benefits and risks, as well as how to shop for and cook healthy food.  Moreover, you will gain the expertise to write a nutrition prescription and assist your patients in adopting healthy eating behaviors.

Upon completion of this module, students should be able to perform the following:

• Describe the basics of nutrition, as well as the metabolic effects of different foods
• Summarize the major nutrition studies and evidence base for nutrition prescriptions
• Describe different types of diets and their effects on health
• Understand the role of nutrition in preventing and treating chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease
• Describe the role of nutrition in preventing, treating, and reversing diabetes
• Summarize nutrition prescriptions for the most common chronic diseases including hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer
• Know how to prescribe nutrition for basic disease processes including inflammation: food patterns / macronutrients, food types / micronutrients, food preparation / oxidation
• Demonstrate the ability to perform a basic nutrition assessment and to apply practical strategies to assist patients in achieving dietary changes
• Describe the basic principles of healthy cooking
• Properly interpret nutrition labels
• Define obesity and understand its epidemiology, as well as assist patients in the prevention and treatment of obesity