HN 704 is a basic course required for all MPhil Human Nutrition students. The course will introduce students to the common concepts of epidemiology to understand relationship between food intake and health outcomes. The course will give an overview of measures of disease frequencies and associations, common research designs in nutritional epidemiology, and causal inferences.

Course will introduce students to life-cycle approach in nutrition starting from pre-conception. However, the focus is on physiological requirement, nutritional problems and strategies to address these problems in pregnant and lactating women, infants and young children. The students will learn about increased nutritional needs in pregnancy, strategies to increase nutrient intake, promotion of healthy eating and consequences of malnutrition in pregnancy; importance of breast feeding including early initiation, colostrum provision to newborns, exclusive breast feeding and continued breastfeeding; introduction of complimentary foods after six months, nutrient requirement for young children and strategies to promote adequate nutrient intake among children.