Public Health Nutrition
Public Health Nutrition (PHN for short) describes a relatively young sub-discipline of public health and nutritional science . This combines elements of medicine , epidemiology , sociology and statistics with the classical nutritional sciences.
In contrast to the typical individual therapy, Public Health Nutrition focuses on maintaining good health through proper nutrition and through the prevention of diseases that result from incorrect eating habits, lack of exercise, unrealistic body images or falsified body awareness. The aim of this science is to keep population groups “healthy” in the long term.
Public Health Nutrition particularly encompasses the social, economic and political relationships that affect the life of certain population groups and thus influence or promote the development of nutrition-dependent diseases.
In Germany, a degree in Public Health Nutrition is a consecutive Master’s degree . This builds on a degree in nutrition science or a comparable course of study.
The first German PHN master’s course was introduced at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences in the 2006/2007 winter semester .
In Great Britain, the Master's PHN is offered at the University of Southampton, among others.
In the US there is a similar Masters course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.