Sports Nutrition and Health
Sports nutrition and health is a multidisciplinary field that draws on physiology, biochemistry, and psychology to understand how what we eat affects how we perform, recover, adapt, and maintain health across the full range of physical activity contexts. For elite athletes, the right nutritional approach can make a measurable difference to performance, recovery speed, and the ability to adapt to training. For broader health and community populations, nutrition science is central to understanding and addressing the epidemic of diet-related disease.
At the University of Derby, this part-time programme includes a foundation year, a sandwich placement year, a year abroad, and work placements, making it both accessible and richly experiential. You will explore the psychology, physiology, and biochemistry of nutrition, developing a multi-dimensional understanding of how diet interacts with training, physical activity, and health. The programme prepares you for work with both amateur and elite athletes, as well as in health and community settings, reflecting the breadth of contexts in which sports nutrition expertise is applied.
You will develop an understanding of how nutrition affects performance, recovery, and adaptation to training, and how these principles can be applied across different populations and goals. The placement year and work placements give you direct professional experience in sports or health settings.
Graduates go on to work as sports nutritionists, nutrition coaches, performance support staff in sporting organisations, health educators, and in roles in public health, clinical nutrition, and community health promotion. The foundation year makes the programme accessible without sacrificing the scientific rigour that the field demands. Many graduates pursue further professional accreditation with the Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register or similar bodies, which requires postgraduate-level qualifications, and the programme provides a strong foundation for that pathway.