- The metabolism. Direct and indirect calorimetry. Respiratory quotient and caloric equivalent. The baseline.
- The composition of the diet. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of diet composition.
- The food nutrients. Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins, water and minerals. Digestion and absorption of nutrients.
- The water. Water as a food and as a nutrient. The mechanism of thirst and antidiuretic hormone. The mineral waters.
- The food of animal origin and foods of plant origin. Alcoholic drinks and nervine.
- Assessment of nutritional status. Overconsumption and unbalanced diet. The diet in malnutrition and associated diseases. Definition of the concepts of health, homeostasis, etiology, pathogenesis and disease. Environmental pathology: etiologic agents of physical, chemical and mechanical causes injury. Cellular Pathology: basic mechanisms of damage, an adaptive cellular responses, intracellular regressive processes, reversible and irreversible damage and cellular death by necrosis and apoptosis. Acute and chronic inflammation. Immunity: innate immunity, acquired immunity, humoral immune response, major histocompatibility complex, the complement system, cell-mediated immune response. Oncology: general characteristics of neoplastic development, benign and malignant tumors, etiology of cancer, oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the metastatic process.