Dept.

of Health and Nutrition Sciences

2900 Bedford Ave. • Brooklyn, NY 11210

HNSC 5290W Seminar in Current Trends in Nutrition

Semester: Fall 2021

Section: MW5, 3 credits
Class time: Monday & Wednesday 5:05 – 6:20 PM 
Class meeting:   ONLINE synchronous
Instructor:    Raghda Alraei, DCN, MS, RD, CDCES
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00-4:30 PM via Zoom, or by appointment
Contact email: ralraei@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Office phone: 718-951-5026

Course Description:

The course encompasses critical surveys and recent trends in the field on nutrition. It includes
discussion of research methodology, interpretation of research findings, and applications to the
nutritional well-being of individuals and population groups.

Prerequisite Courses

HNSC 2300 Human Physiology (or equivalent), HNSC 3300 Introduction to Biostatistics for Health Sciences
(or equivalent), ENGL 1012 Composition 2 (or equivalent)

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite Course: HNSC 4240 Clinical Nutrition I

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able:

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  to identify standard components of primary literature in the life sciences, i.e., peer-reviewed
journal articles; and to describe basic research designs drawing upon peer-reviewed literature
 to critically analyze selected current literature with respect to research question, study methods,
and relevance of results to nutritional well-being of individuals and groups
 to assess a select number of developments in nutrition related to community and clinical nutrition
drawing upon primary literature
 to demonstrate effective oral communication and written skills including conventions of
citation systems and current information technologies including conventions of citation
systems and current information.

This course contributes to the following ACEND Knowledge requirement (KRDNs)

 KRDN 1.1 Demonstrate how to locate, interpret, evaluate, and use professional literature to make
ethical, evidence-based decisions.
 KRDN 1.2 Use current information technologies to locate and apply evidence based-guidelines and
protocols.
 KRDN 1.3 Apply critical thinking skills
 KRDN 2.1 Demonstrate effective and professional oral and written communication and
documentation

Required Materials

This course is based on primary literature, i.e., peer-reviewed journal articles, which will be posted before
each session. Articles may be accessed through Brooklyn College Library’s electronic journal (e-journal)
collection. A reading list with required research articles will be provided separately.
Power point presentation and any additional reading materials will be posted on Blackboard before each
session.

Reference websites:
1. PubMed.gov (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/), database for citations of biomedical literature,
run by National Institutes of Health.
2. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics evidence analysis library at eatright.org
(http://andevidencelibrary.com). This website houses systematic reviews and practice guidelines related to
medical nutrition therapy and other food and nutrition-related science for RD practice. You need to be a
member of the Academy to get access.
3. Scopus (http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/resources/index.php?view=subject_databases&sub_id=4). “A
comprehensive database covering articles from over 19,000 peer-reviewed titles from more than 5,000
international publishers (including over 1800 open access journals). Records cover 1966 to the present from
all scientific, technical, medical, and social science fields.” Available through Brooklyn College Library.
4. Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can
search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from
academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google
Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

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ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION
Grading
Numeric Score Letter Grade
98 -100 A+
90 – 97.9 A
85 – 89 B+
80 – 84.9 B
75 – 79.9 C+
70 – 74.9 C
65 – 70 D+
60 – 64.9 D
≤60 F

Unless otherwise stated, a curve will not be used.

COURSE EVALUATION/FINAL GRADE

Your final course grade will be comprised of the following components:

Attendance 5%
Participation 5%
Protecting Human Research Participants Certificate Training 5%
Blog Writing Assignment 10%
Oral Presentation 15%
Written Critiques 15%
Review Paper 25%
Midterm Exam 10%
Final Exam 10%
Total Grade 100%

Assignments:

Oral Presentations: Students need to select an original research study published within the last five years,
in the topic of choice among topics discussed in class, and present to the class for discussion. Instructions
and rubric will be posted on Blackboard.

Blog Writing Assignment: Students need to select a study published in the last year, and write a one page
blog, using simple, easy to understand language.

Written Critique: Students need to select a study published in the last five years, and write a detailed
critique.

Review Paper: Students need to write a review paper on the topic of choice, using at least five original
research articles. Instructions will be posted on Blackboard.

Tentative Course Schedule

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Date Topic
Wednesday 8/25/21 Overview of Course and Assignments
Monday 8/30/21 Sources of Nutrition information
Wednesday 9/1/21 Structure within Journals; Structure with Articles (IMRAD)
Monday 9/6/21 No Class
Wednesday 9/8/21 No Class
Monday 9/13/21 Introduction to Scientific Writing and Citations
Wednesday 9/15/21 No Class
Monday 9/20/21 Research Study Designs
Wednesday 9/22/21 Basic Biostatistics
Oral Presentation Topic Due
Monday 9/27/21 Trends in Obesity
Protecting Human Research Participants Certificate Training
Wednesday 9/29/21 Approaches to Weight Loss: Ketogenic Diet
Monday 10/4/21 Approaches to Weight Loss: Very Low Carbohydrate Diet
Wednesday 10/6/21 Approaches to Weight Loss: Intermittent Fasting
Monday 10/11/21 No Class
Wednesday 10/13/21 Oral Presentations
Monday 10/18/21 The Role of Gut Microbiome in Obesity and Insulin
Resistance
Blog Assignment Due
Wednesday 10/20/21 Probiotics and Prebiotics
Monday 10/25/21 Probiotics and Weight Loss
Wednesday 10/27/21 Oral Presentations
Monday 11/1/21 Artificial Sweeteners and Gut Microbiome
Wednesday 11/3/21 Midterm Exam
Monday 11/8/21 Covid-19 and Nutrition
Wednesday 11/10/21 Covid-19 and Nutrition
Monday 11/15/21 Nutrition and Cognitive Function: The Mediterranean Diet
Wednesdy 11/17/21 Nutrition and Cognitive Function: The Mind Diet
Monday 11/22/21 Nutrition and Cognitive Function: Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Written Critique Due
Wednesday 11/24/21 Dietary fat, carbohydrates, and Cardiovascular Disease
Monday 11/29/21 Dietary fat, carbohydrates, and Cardiovascular Disease
Wednesday 12/1/21 Nutrition and Cancer
Monday 12/6/21 Nutrition and Autoimmune Disease
Wednesday 12/8/21 Oral Presentations
Monday 12/13/21 Nutrigenomics
Review Paper due
Monday 12/20/21 Final Exam

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COLLEGE POLICIES
 
Academic Integrity 
The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and
plagiarism. Each student is responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for
avoiding both.  The complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College
procedure for implementing that policy can be found at this site:
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies  . If a faculty member suspects a violation of academic integrity
and, upon investigation, confirms that violation, or if the student admits the violation, the faculty member
MUST report the violation. NO EXCEPTIONS!  Any violation of the following will result in a grade of 0 for the
assignment or activity. 

Types of Academic Dishonesty Explicitly Prohibited

 Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aides,
devices or communication during an academic exercise.
 Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own.
 Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers,
paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting &
pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.
 Obtaining unfair advantage is any activity that intentionally or unintentionally gives a student an
unfair advantage in his/her academic work over another student. This includes sharing specific
information about exam questions with other students. 
 Falsification of records and official documents includes, but is not limited to, forging signatures of
authorization and falsifying information on an official academic record.
 
Center for Student Disability Services 
In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be registered
with the Center for Student Disability Services (CSDS).  Students who have a documented disability
or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an appointment with the Director of the
Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie Stewart-Lovell at 718-951-5538. If you have
already registered with the CSDS please provide your professor with the course accommodation
form and discuss your specific accommodation with him/her as soon as possible and at an
appropriate time.

Student Absence on Account of Religious Belief 

A student who, for religious reasons, does not attend classes on a particular day or days shall be excused
from any examination or other work.  The student shall have equivalent opportunity to make up any
examination or study or work requirements. Please make every effort to notify me beforehand of any
planned absences for religious reasons.  For a full description of the policy, consult the Brooklyn College
Bulletin.   

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