Research

RESEARCH FOCI IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN NUTRITION

• Research field 1: Nutrition behaviour
• Research field 2: Community nutrition in the South African context
• Research field 3: Therapeutic nutrition
• Research field 4: Food and managerial science base of nutrition care
• Research field 5: Dietetic profession

Staff members are involved in different professional associations, and also in journals published by the professional associations. They serve on the national and local management of the forementioned and on the editorial panels of the journals, as well as on the Professional Board for Dietetics. They attend symposia and congresses regularly and present papers or research reports. The research focuses on understanding and explaining human behaviour regarding nutrition, aspects of applied human nutrition and clinical/therapeutic nutrition, as well as the establishment of standards for dietetics praxis. Journal meetings and academic discussions have been successfully established and are attended monthly by dieticians of various training hospitals. Continuous professional development is maintained in this way. Recently two staff members had the opportunity to broaden their views on training in nutrition and dietetics in Switzerland and Sweden respectively.