Please note that this module is offered entirely online, including assessment. For this reason, there is no scheduled timetable in the system.
In this online module, students will be introduced to the topic of Human Eating Behaviour, and the various factors affecting food choice. Food, as presented in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is essential for human life, but in addition is a pleasurable experience that is intertwined with culture, traditions, ethical and sustainability concerns, conscious and unconscious internal factors, as well as being controlled by a number of biological feedback mechanisms that influence intake, hunger and satiety. Students will learn about the different hormones involved, and the different biological pathways. The factors that impact food choice and the development of preference can vary from person to person, and can also be influenced by external cues. Food preferences, eating habits and behaviours develop, grow and adapt from birth right through to old age, as our internal and external environments and our sensory perceptions change, and as nutritional requirements change over time.
The module will examine some of the frameworks around food choice, covering the various aspects from choice behaviour, nudge theory, external cues such food packaging and marketing, sensory attributes, and food environment, and internal cues such as hunger and satiety, perception of food intake, individual genetic influences, inherent values and the development of individual food preferences.
Students will learn about how these change and adapt over the lifespan and with changing environments. They will be introduced to basic principles of sensory science, and to basic concepts of eating behaviour such as eating rate, bite size, energy density, portion size, and their measurement. On completion of the module, students will gain an understanding of how the internal and external environment can impact these different factors and lead to differences in eating behaviour across the lifespan.
Please note - due to the online nature of this module, prospective students are strongly advised that a high degree of self-direction and motivation is required.
While no pre-requisites are specified, it is advised that some prior knowledge of biology will be very useful.