DTN201 - Developing Nutrition Various Laboratory Skills

Assignment Task

This assessment task aims to develop your nutrition-related laboratory knowledge and skills. You will be challenged with various laboratory exercises over the study period, which will be collated to form your practical report. To complete this task, you will need to watch and complete the lab exercises embedded within the LMS learning materials.

You can complete each lab-associated activity as it becomes available on the LMS (Weeks 1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11). The report can be typed or handwritten and scanned. This practical report is due at the end of Week 12 and contributes 25% to your total subject grade. You must pass this assessment to pass the subject. Tables and calculations are not part of the word count for this assessment. Questions where a suggested word count (in red) has been provided will contribute to the 950 (+/-10%) word limit for this task.

Practical

1: Introduction to Lab Safety and Lab Skills

Prior to commencing the practical activities in the LMS, provide a brief evaluation and reflection of your current laboratory skills and knowledge in the table below. You may like to discuss what laboratory experience you have had previously, your strengths and areas for improvement. You can complete this table with succinct dot points. If you have not gained any lab experience, it is okay to state this and focus on what you want to learn.

Task

1. Watch the videos on Balances, Pipettes and Pump Dispensers. For each method, identify two factors that increase the validity and accuracy of measurements and two factors that will reduce the validity and accuracy of measurements. You can answer with dot points.

Balances

• Methods that increase accuracy and validity:
• Methods that reduce accuracy and validity:

Pipettes

• Methods that increase accuracy and validity:
• Methods that reduce accuracy and validity:

Pump Dispensers

• Methods that increase accuracy and validity:
• Methods that reduce accuracy and validity:

2. Translation to practice: What are the implications of having poor accuracy and validity of measures in practice? Include references to support your response.

2: RMR Testing

Indirect calorimetry is often used in practice to estimate the metabolic rate of individuals we work with. Gas analysers are used for this purpose whereby the volume of oxygen consumed by an individual is measured. Calories consumed by the body require a fixed amount of oxygen, therefore oxygen consumed relates directly to calories burned. This data can be used to calculate BMR. The week 3 practical video shows an example of RMR testing.

3. Body Composition

• Anthropometric and body composition tools can be useful to assess risk and determine if nutritional strategies are effective in individuals and populations. The following page provides an example of collecting waist and hip circumference data. You will need access to a tape measure and volunteer to complete the following activity.
• Using the instructions in the video, collect the waist and hip circumferences on a volunteer three times. These measurements can all be performed simultaneously, one after the other.
• Translation to practice: How do you rate your accuracy in collecting anthropometric data? What factors might influence the accuracy of the information collected
• Translation to practice What is your interpretation of the waist circumference, hip circumference and Waist:Hip ratio? Discuss whether you think the Waist:Hip ratio is an accurate measure of health status? Please include references to support your response

4. Measuring the glycaemic index (GI) in foods

The glycaemic index is a method of classifying or ranking foods according to the effect a food has on a normal physiological response to eating, i.e., a rise in blood glucose following a meal. The rise in concentration of glucose in blood is the result of the interactive effects of the chemical structure of the carbohydrate in the food (and therefore the digestibility), the rate of absorption of glucose derived from the food and physiological responses by the person to glucose absorbed from the food.

• To complete this activity, you will need to work through the practical videos and activities in the Week 5 prac.
• Using the absorbance values from the activity, you will need to plot a standard curve using the printable graph paper linked in the lab page, or using computer software such as Excel. Attached your graph below.
• Using the standard curve, plot the area under the curve (AUC) of plasma glucose concentrations for glucose ad potato (it may be helpful to have these in different colours) to calculate the GI of the potatoes.

5. Anaemia

Nutritional deficiencies can be problematic at an individual and population level. For this reason, care must be taken to prevent nutritional deficiencies. Depending on an individual ‘s dietary preference or access to food, a nutritional deficiency may arise.

• List the three most common nutritional deficiencies that cause anaemia.
• How can you determine if someone has a vitamin B12 deficiency via a urine sample? What would you expect to observe and why
• Which amino acid is used in the loading test for identifying B12 deficiency?
• Translation to practice: Explain the synergistic relationship between folate and cobalamin and how inadequate intake or metabolism of these nutrients can lead to anaemia. What foods would you suggest to prevent deficiency?

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