95830 - Diet and Chronic Degenerative Disease

Learning outcomes

The course covers the topics of pathophysiology of key non-communicable diseases and their dietary links with reference to the role of nutrition in both prevention and health protection.

 

Main learning outcomes are: understand and apply the main methodologies in nutritional epidemiology; examine both mechanistic and epidemiological evidence of the links between diet and major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs); understand the role of lifestyle factors—including diet, micronutrient status, processing level, and physical activity—in NCD prevention and management; comprehend and prevent malnutrition; develop a deeper understanding and ability to apply those dietary patterns with the most evidence-based effectiveness in terms of health promotion.

The aim of the Course is to provide students with the tools to translate scientific findings into healthy lifestyle, individual preventive nutrition plans, population interventions, and practical public health recommendations.

Course contents

Introduction.

The evolution of epidemiological studies on the relationship between diet and chronic degenerative diseases.


Research methods

- Techniques for surveying food consumption in the population: food-frequency questionnaires, food diaries, 7-day dietary recalls, 24-hour dietary recalls, photographic methods, and digital tools. Measurement errors, underreporting and overreporting, intra-individual variability, data validation, and selection of the most appropriate method according to the specific objective.

• comparison with the DRVs using AR, PRI, AI, RI, and UL;
• distinction between individual-level and group-level assessment;
• appropriate use of food composition databases.

- Methods for surveying energy expenditure in the population: doubly labeled water, accelerometers, heart rate monitoring, pedometers.

- Biomarkers


Foods: Risks and Health Claims

- Ultra-processed foods and microplastics: health risks

- Alcohol: health risks

- Adverse reactions to foods: mechanisms, prevention of complications

- Celiac disease: mechanisms, risk factors, dietary treatment, prevention of complications

- Health claims according to EFSA


Malnutrition

- Assessment of nutritional status

- Protein-calorie malnutrition: prevalence, risk factors, prevention

- Vitamin and mineral deficiencies: adverse health effects


Diet and chronic degenerative diseases

- Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome: determinants in the development of type 2 diabetes, MASLD, metabolic nephropathy, PMOS, dyslipidemia, hypertension; glycemic index and glycemic load.

- Obesity: etiology (outline), dietary risk factors, determinants, lifestyle interventions for primary and secondary prevention

- Type 2 diabetes: dietary risk factors, dietary patterns, lifestyle interventions

- Cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia: dietary risk factors, dietary patterns, lifestyle interventions

- Cancer: dietary risk factors, dietary patterns, and lifestyle interventions for primary and secondary prevention

- Sarcopenia and osteoporosis: risk factors, mechanisms, prevention and intervention strategies

- Neurodegenerative diseases: risk factors, mechanisms, prevention and intervention strategies
- Functional dyspepsia and functional bowel disease: risk factors, mechanisms, nutritional and nutraceutical intervention strategies (outline)


Healthy dietary patterns and their implementation

- Food systems, nutritional transition, sustainability, and inequalities

- Mediterranean diet

- Other dietary patterns: vegetarian, planetarian, DASH, Nordic

- Food pyramids

- Nutrition policies and population interventions (taxes, labels, guidelines) guide)

- Intervention planning

Review and feedback

Readings/Bibliography

Sistema Nazionale delle Linee Guida. La dieta Mediterranea (2025)

Società Italiana di Nutrizione Umana (SINU). V revisione LARN - Livelli di Assunzione di Riferimento di Nutrienti ed energia per la popolazione italiana [Italian Recommended Dietary Allowances]

Liguri G, Stefani M. Nutrizione e Dietologia (2025) - Zanichelli (chapters 1, 2, 10-13, 15-17)

Teaching methods

The course is delivered mainly through in-person classroom teaching and includes practical sessions using nutritional software to develop personalised preventive nutrition plans.

Although attendance is not compulsory, it is strongly recommended because of the applied nature of the course and the practical activities involved.

For attending students, practical activities focus on topics previously explained by the lecturer and further explored through videos and teaching materials available asynchronously. Students work in small groups to prepare nutrition plans, which are then discussed in class following the random selection of groups. Remote attendance via Microsoft Teams is also permitted, provided that students participate actively and that their participation can be verified.

For some of the topics covered, peer education and flipped-classroom methods will be used. In the virtual classroom, students, organised into predetermined groups, will discuss the assigned topic, present the main epidemiological studies related to it, and/or develop intervention projects.

Brief in-class polls will also be conducted during the lectures.

Assessment methods

For attending students, assessment will be based on a multiple-choice test administered via EOL.

Up to 3 additional points may be added to the test score, based on the assessment of in-class work, including exercises involving the correction of nutritional plans prepared asynchronously by the student and presentations on course topics delivered by students.

For non-attending students, students who have attended less than 70% of classes, or students who, although formally present, have failed to participate actively in practical activities on more than two occasions, assessment will be conducted and calculated as follows:

• multiple-choice test administered via EOL: 70% of the final grade;
• in-class written assignment consisting of the development and discussion of a preventive nutritional plan based on a prompt provided by the lecturer: 20% of the final grade;
• recording of a 10- to 15-minute video presentation on major epidemiological studies or systematic reviews concerning one of the course topics, to be agreed upon with the lecturer: 10% of the final grade.

Teaching tools

English-speaking students are encouraged to enrol in the Course, since translated materials will be provided and they can carry out the exam in English.

Teaching materials, including lecture notes and presentations with accompanying written text in PDF format, will be made available on the Virtuale platform before and during the lectures. Open-access scientific journal articles and other scientific materials will also be provided.

Recordings of the lectures will be made available through the Panopto system. For practical activities, students should instead refer to the videos and materials uploaded to Virtuale by the tutor.

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) or temporary or permanent disabilities are advised to contact the relevant University Office well in advance: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en . The Office will propose any appropriate accommodations for the students concerned. These accommodations must, however, be submitted to the lecturer for approval at least 15 days in advance. The lecturer will assess their suitability, also in relation to the learning outcomes of the course unit.

The course unit participates in the University’s teaching innovation project.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools during the examination is prohibited in any form. This includes chatbots, text generators, advanced translation tools, content summarisation tools, and tools integrated into digital devices. Any use of AI, as well as of digital devices of any kind, is considered a breach of the principles of honesty and fairness set out in the University Policy and will result in the invalidation of the examination and/or disciplinary action.

Conversely, the lecturer encourages the responsible use of AI as a useful tool during the learning process, provided that it does not interfere with students’ ability to reason logically, perform food composition and nutritional calculations, or independently retrieve information through bibliographic research.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Letizia Petroni