Psychology of Nutrition

Syllabus

1) Nutrition, theoretical and applied psychology. History of the interaction between nutritional and psychological sciences. Concept of psychodietetics. Importance of the knowledge of nutrition in understanding human behavior.

2) Regulation of food intake. Peripheral and central regulatory mechanisms of food intake. Hunger, satiety. Feeding behavior as the cycle of motivated behavior. Bearing of physiology, psychology and ethology on the study of the regulation of food intake.

3) Ontogeny of feeding behavior. Development of feeding behavior, preferences, aversions and attitudes towards food in childhood. Process of fixation of the patterns of food choice. Influence of the family and social environment on the formation of nutritional habits.

4) Nutrition as an integral part of the life style. Biological rhythms and nutrition. Mental hygiene and nutrition. Attitudes towards food in the adulthood. Changing food habits. Physical activity, mental health and nutrition. Food in working process and during recreation. Psychological problems of nutrition in maintaining physical and mental health of seniors.

5) Undernutrition and malnutrition. Deficient supply of energy and nutrients. Protein-energy malnutrition. Experimental research on the effects of malnutrition on behavior, learning, emotionality and social life. Global problems of malnutrition. Contribution of psychological research to understand mechanisms and symptoms of malnutrition.

6) Disturbances of food intake. Abnormal attitudes towards food. Physical and mental factors in the eating disorders and in food choice. Spontaneous starvation and fasting motivated by individual philosophy, religion, beliefs, ethical or health reasons. Mental anorexia, its incidence and causes. Contribution of the family and social environment on the development of mental anorexia. Personality of the anorectic patient. Self-concept and disturbance of body image. Mental bulimia, bulimic attacks. Psychological and long term health risks of mental anorexia and mental bulimia. Therapeutical approaches to mental anorexia and bulimia - nutritional and behavioral procedures. Obesity. Hereditary and family causes of child obesity. Personality of the obese child. Early nutrition and its effect on the development of unhealthy food habits resulting in obesity in the adulthood. Cognitive behavioral therapy of obesity.

7) Human behavioral evolution and nutrition. Influence of main nutrients on brain development. Progress in mental capacity, behavioral diversity, formation of human society as affected by nutritional resources and by the possibility of their utilization. Plasticity of human behavior in food selection. Traditions, rituals and nutritional habits in human history and in the life of contemporary family and society.

8) Contemporary trends in nutrition. Positive and harmful effects of certain dietary regimes. Vegetarians, vegans, macrobiotics. "Dieting" in adult women. Influence of advertising, TV, recommendations of new products. Actual problems, individual nutritional experience of foreign students differing in nutritional habits and in the life style. Results of our own experimental and field studies on the interaction between nutrition and behavior.

Annotation

Předmět ukazuje význam výživy pro vývoj a funkce CNS a její působení v kulturní evoluci člověka, význam výživy ve vývoji psychiky člověka, tělesné i duševní činnosti dítěte, dospělého i stárnoucího jedince. Seznamuje s působením výživy na individuum, s úlohou výživy v pracovní činnosti jedince a se sociálními aspekty jídla.

Ukazuje výchovné možnosti, které poskytuje výživa pro předškolní a školní věk i období dospívání. Poskytuje teoretický základ a potřebnou poznatkovou základnu pro studium psychických poruch spojených s výživou.