Presentation

The Postgraduate Diploma in Nutrition Applied to Physical Activity and Sport provides tools that allow a comprehensive approach to food to improve the performance of the athlete without compromising their state of health. According to this approach, sports nutrition must be linked with sports physiology, new technologies and ergogeny.

In a social and cultural context in which sport is in fashion and food has an increasingly relevant role, sports nutrition is a field with very good economic prospects and, therefore, of employability.

Sports nutrition has gone from being a concept used only in the field of professional sports or body building to being one also in the context of general health and well-being. As an economic sector, sports supplementation and supplementation have experienced growth. At the same time, the need for scientific knowledge and criteria to guide and personalize the recommendations is born. In addition to seeking nutrition for improved sports performance, adopting a healthy lifestyle by doing sports and practicing a balanced diet creates a growing demand for sports nutrition professionals.
With our learning methodology, this postgraduate program brings students closer to real contexts close to those of health and nutrition professionals. A teaching model based on challenges is established: resolution of activities, cases, problems, reflection and debate, teamwork and also autonomously. The contents and resources are selected to solve each of these situations and develop professional skills. New tools such as case simulators are used.

Academic program

To obtain this postgraduate course, the student must pass 30 ECTS credits.
The number of ECTS credits is an estimate of the time that the student can spend to acquire the skills associated with each of the subjects.
Each ECTS credit is equivalent to approximately 25 hours of student dedication.
The learning process is based on the continuous evaluation (CE) model, with no final face-to-face test being carried out in any subject.
This postgraduate course is taken in two academic semesters (beginning in October), and consists of 6 compulsory subjects and the final postgraduate project.

Contents

Biology and physiology applied to sport

• Physiology applied to performance and sports nutrition
• Molecular biology and biochemistry applied to sports and nutrition
• Nutritional needs of sports practice
• Chronobiology and neurophysiology applied to food and physical activity

Diet and physical activity at different stages of life

• Physiological and metabolic changes linked to sports practice throughout the life cycle
• Nutritional requirements of the athlete or active person at different stages of life
• Dietary advice, according to the type of sport, specific to the different life stages
• Nutritional guidelines for before, during and after physical activity, and depending on age and gender
• Recommendations for hydration and recovery depending on the type of sport and life stage
• Programs to promote physical activity and improve eating habits in the community environment

Food cooking and sports

• Healthy diet adapted to sports practice
• Culinary techniques and gastronomy applied to sports nutrition
• Distribution and composition of meals for sports practice
• Applied cooking concepts for athletes and home products
• Collective restoration in the field of sport

Comprehensive assessment of the athlete

• Importance of nutritional assessment in sport
• Dietary intake assessment methods
• Determination of energy needs
• Biochemical assessment of the athlete
• Body composition, health and performance
• Measurement technique in Cineanthropometry
• Usefulness of mobile technology tools in the comprehensive assessment of the athlete

Objectives, profiles and competencies

The objective of this postgraduate course is to provide professionals in the field of health and sports with the necessary competencies to integrate and apply the knowledge on nutrition applied to physical activity, sports and health. To achieve this, these two sub-objectives must be overcome:

• Integrate specific knowledge about food in physical activity and sports in different situations and training phases, including major sporting challenges, new trends in training and specific food products.
• Internalize the idea of ​​the importance of evidence-based feeding interventions that optimize the processes of prevention, promotion and health education, and also the optimization of performance in sport.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Nutrition Applied to Physical Activity and Sport offers specialized training for people who want to dedicate themselves to nutritional counseling for athletes in the following settings:

• Sports health and medicine centers
• Sports federations, centers and entities

Companies in the field of sports supplementation and supplementation, as an economic sector that has experienced high growth, also need professionals specifically trained in food and sports to work in the development of products aimed at improving performance without compromising health status. and based on scientific evidence.

In the health promotion environment, the presence of trained professionals is also essential to provide dietary advice linked to the prescription of physical activity and healthy lifestyles in different physiological states, who know how to transmit and communicate scientific knowledge and criteria to guide to society given the misinformation in sports nutrition and malpractice or risky behavior linked to the social context or commercial interests.

General competences

• Search, analyze and synthesize the information that facilitates decision making in complex scenarios.
• Apply the acquired knowledge to solve problems in new or little-known environments within broader contexts and multidisciplinary teams.
• Carry out academic and professional activities in a responsible, efficient, committed way and with a high level of initiative and personal autonomy in both individual and group projects, also in a virtual environment.
• Collaborate with the different interdisciplinary groups involved to achieve common goals and superior to those achieved individually.
• Formulate, design and manage projects in a creative and entrepreneurial way.
• Develop critical and self-critical capacity, showing attitudes consistent with ethical principles.

Cross-cutting competences

• Use and apply information and communication technologies in the academic and professional fields of health and nutrition.
• Communicate effectively by different means and in various contexts.
• Consider different perspectives in decision making.

Specific competences

• Identify, organize, interpret and communicate scientific health information, critically evaluating the sources of information used, preserving the confidentiality of the data, current legislation and fundamental rights and equality between people.
• Recognize the role of physical activity in the state of health and the prevention of pathologies with the highest incidence.
• Assess nutritional, anthropometric and health aspects of the athlete applying the best methods and intervention strategies based on scientific evidence.
• Integrate the biological, metabolic and physiological aspects related to food and sport to provide informed guidance on sports nutrition to improve performance and maintain good health.
• Evaluate diet interventions applied to physical activity to improve health and sports performance, as well as their impact based on indicators of efficiency, effectiveness, safety and quality.
• Evaluate the suitability of the use of ergogenic aids in nutrition, pharmacology and psychology for performance optimization without compromising health status.
• Design and implement health promotion programs or activities through nutrition applied to physical activity and sport, individually or collectively, contributing to the health education of the population and developing educational processes that promote the empowerment of individuals, families, groups or communities.
• Formulate healthy food and gastronomic proposals according to the nutritional needs of the athlete or active person.
• Analyze the development and innovation processes for the production of food products for athletes taking into account safety and quality, in addition to the necessary technology and the legal framework.

To pursue the postgraduate course in Nutrition Applied to Physical Activity and Sport, it is recommended to have a degree in the field of health sciences. Especially you must have one of the following profiles:

• Graduates or graduates in Human Nutrition and Dietetics
• Graduates or Diplomas in Nursing
• Graduates or graduates in Medicine
• Pharmacy graduates or graduates
• Graduates or graduates in Physiotherapy
• Graduates or graduates in Physical Education (PE) or Physical Activity and Sports Sciences (CAFE)

The skills and knowledge acquired in this postgraduate course will offer you the opportunity to progress professionally such as:

• Food advisor in sports.