Masters Degrees in Nutrition, Netherlands

MSc Nutrition and Health

The Nutrition and Health programme studies nutrition and health at the (sub)cellular, individual and population level.

Programme summary

Nutrition and Health focuses on the role of dietary and lifestyle factors in human health and disease. This role is studied from a biomedical perspective at the individual and population levels. In addition, the mechanisms underlying beneficial and adverse effects are studied at the sub-cellular (DNA), cellular and organ/ organism levels. Human nutrition is a multidisciplinary field of expertise. To solve problems in nutrition and health, you must consider chemical and biochemical characteristics, physiological and biomedical aspects, the social and behavioural context of nutrition, and the relationships between these factors. Solving problems in this domain requires multidisciplinary biomedical knowledge and skills as well as an interdisciplinary approach to communication with experts in human nutrition and other fields.

Specialisations

The specialisations within Nutrition and Health are:

Epidemiology and Public Health
Epidemiologists try to determine causal relationships in large groups of people, such as the elderly or people with cardiovascular problems; between food, lifestyle and the development of diseases. Research results act as starting points for health advice and lead to a greater understanding of cause and effect. If you know that certain behaviour leads to a disease, that behaviour can be addressed, and the effectiveness of the efforts to do so can be measured. You will be helping to improve the overall health of people and may be able to prevent food-related diseases from developing.

Complete Online Master
From September 2015, Wageningen University started the specialisation "Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health" as the first complete online Master of Science. For more information go to http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/onlinemaster

Nutritional Physiology and Health Status
In this specialisation, you will study various age groups and situations, such as growth, pregnancy, and food consumption behaviour. You will also review special situations including serious diseases (clinical food), during sports and activity. You may also research the food consumption behaviour and habits of individuals and how you may be able to influence that, for example, through portion sizes. In short, you will review different aspects and will learn what the effects are of food consumption patterns and the physiological processes on the body and what that means for the status of its health and illness.

Molecular Nutrition and Toxicology
In this specialisation, you will learn to use techniques, at molecular and cellular levels, to discover the mechanism driving the relationship between food and health. In toxicology, you will learn to study the possible poisonous effects of substances present in food. For instance, new ingredients in food products and additives, but also natural substances present in our food. The relationship between food consumption, food and medicines can also be researched and through this research, you will find many new leads to improving our health.

Sensory Science
This specialisation is positioned at the interface of the programmes Food Technology and Nutrition and Health. Sensory scientists deal with the way humans perceive the world and act upon sensory input. They address how sensory systems function, from stimulation and perception to cognition and behaviour. You will work with humans and products in different contexts and study the way in which product properties affect, for example, sensory perception. The study always keeps a link to the application of this knowledge in the fields of human health and the design, production and consumption of attractive healthy foods.

Your future career

Many of our graduates begin working as researchers or PhD students. Another group becomes advisors, trainers or take up other jobs in the private sector. The majority of graduates finds employment at universities (including university medical centres), research institutes (TNO Nutrition or RIVM), in the public sector (national, regional and local governments, Netherlands Nutrition Centre, District Health Authorities) or companies involved with nutrition, pharmacology and toxicology (Unilever, Nutricia, Friesland Campina, Danone Research, Novartis). As graduates progress in their careers, they usually advance to a (more) managerial level.

Alumna Pascalle Weijzen.
Pascalle did a thesis in Epidemiology and Sensory Science. After her graduation, she did a PhD project on the dynamics of food choice and sensory specific satiety. She joined FrieslandCampina afterwards, as a Researcher Sensory & Consumer Science, where she has been responsible for innovation projects aiming at strategies to stimulate healthy food choices. “I really feel I can contribute to profit for the company and to public health at the same time. In this job I still benefit from the broad nutrition and sensory expertise, the strong academic level of thinking, and the worldwide expert network which I built up during my MSc and PhD degrees.”

Related programmes:
MSc Food Safety
Health and Society (specialisation)

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ONLINE OPEN DAY: 17 MARCH 2016

Would you like to know more about the Master programmes of Wageningen University, join us for the Master online open day on 17 March 2016! During the online open day you can meet the staff and students of the Master programmes, experience Wageningen University and check out the innovative campus. You can also ask your questions about application and admission, scholarships, the education system and much more, all online!

sign up now

http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/masteronlineopenday

MSc Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health

This is an online Master specialisation within the MSc Nutrition and Health.

Online Master

The online master specialisation is designed for part-time study (approx. 20 hrs/week) to combine work and study or in the context of Life-Long-Learning. A course-programme of 2 years will be followed by a tailor-made internship and Master thesis. The internship and thesis will together take up either 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time. During the courses, you will closely collaborate with lecturers, tutors and fellow distance learning students using a virtual learning platform. The course programme includes a short stay of one week on Wageningen Campus together with the other students in this programme. There are options to organise the academic internship and Master thesis in your own professional context, either parttime or full-time.

Programme summary

Do you think it is interesting to study the role that nutrition and lifestyle play in the development of diseases? Epidemiologists try to determine such relationships in large groups of people. Epidemiology is the basic science of public health. Research results are the starting points for health advice and lead to a greater understanding of cause and effect. If it is known that certain behaviour leads to a disease, then you can quantify the impact of that behaviour and establish effective measures for disease prevention. The acquired knowledge can be used in health policymaking and intervention programmes in both developing and developed countries. You will be helping to improve the overall health of people and may be able to prevent foodrelated diseases from developing.

The master specialisation Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health addresses the design, implementation, analysis and interpretation of epidemiological research, both interventional and observational. It focuses on the aetiology and prevention of diseases, with specific reference to dietary patterns, nutritional factors and lifestyle. Central issues are assessment of exposure, risk factors of disease, biomarkers for health status and analysis and interpretation of major study designs. Since you need expertise and competences in both nutritional epidemiology ànd public health to be able to fully understand this domain, the study programme consists of different courses and trainings combining these two fields.

Nutritional epidemiology courses focus on the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of epidemiological research, both in the clinical domain and in free living population groups. Concerning health outcomes, the emphasis is on dietrelated diseases and conditions, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and certain infectious diseases. Nutritional epidemiology is closely related to clinical research and causal inference in the biomedical domain, relevant to underpinning public health interventions in dietary patterns and lifestyle. The acquired evidence from epidemiological research has to be translated into public health policies and health promotion programmes, both at the local, national and international level. Public health courses address the design, organisation, implementation and evaluation of intervention programs that address the lifestyles of individuals (e.g., behaviour, food choice, physical activity, well-being) and/or societal context (e.g. work, school, media, policies). Public health has close relationships with methods and theories from psychological, social, economic, agriculture and political research.

Read more about the programme on our website: http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/omnh

Your future career

Graduates of the Master Nutrition and Health greatly value the research skills they acquired in the programme. After graduation, many of them begin working as researchers or PhD students. Another group becomes advisors, trainers or take up other jobs in the private sector. The majority of graduates finds employment at universities (including university medical centres), research institutes, in the public sector (WHO, NGO's, national health services) and some find employment in companies involved with nutrition and health. Graduates work in both developing and developed countries.

Alumnus Santiago Rodas.
Santiago always wanted to work with nutrition in developing countries. He worked for UNICEF and was the chair of a national nutrition programme. But then he felt the need to obtain a master’s degree in public health nutrition: “This master taught me how to use the up-to-date scientific evidence for programme design and implementation. From the courses, I acquired the technical skills to do research and from my thesis and internship at the World Food Programme (WFP) I learned how to put research into practice. Now I work as an international consultant of the Policy, Programme and Innovation Division of the WFP at its headquarters in Rome.”

Related on-campus programmes:
MSc Food Safety: http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/mfs
MSc Food Technology: http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/mft
MSc Nutrition and Health: http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/mnh
Health and Society (specialisation): http://www.wageningenuniversity.eu/mhs

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