This graduate course examines the interactions among nutrition, immunity, and infectious disease, with attention to the evidence behind each relationship. Students analyze how the immune system depends on energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals, and critically evaluate how deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and zinc increase vulnerability to infection. The course appraises the reverse relationship: how infection, inflammation, diarrhea, and fever alter appetite, absorption, and nutrient status, sustaining a cycle of undernutrition and illness. Students assess nutrition in infants and children, pregnancy, aging, HIV and tuberculosis, breastfeeding, probiotics and prebiotics, and obesity. They examine how food insecurity, poverty, and sanitation shape patterns of malnutrition and disease, and how nutritional interventions are designed and evaluated. Through case analysis and scholarly discussion, learners develop informed judgment. Throughout, the course integrates this study with Christian convictions about human dignity and healing, equipping ministry and health leaders to serve vulnerable communities across diverse cultural settings.
Graduate students gain advanced understanding of how nutrition shapes immunity and how infection shapes nutritional status. They learn to appraise the evidence linking undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and nutrient imbalance to risk, severity, and recovery from disease, and to evaluate nutritional interventions critically. This knowledge supports leadership in nutrition, medicine, public health, humanitarian relief, and mission organizations. Students strengthen capacity to interpret research, evaluate nutrition programs, and communicate health information responsibly. For leaders serving in food-insecure and under-resourced settings, the course offers a framework for protecting children, mothers, and families through culturally appropriate action in partnership with communities and health authorities.
Undernutrition and infection form a vicious cycle that remains one of the leading causes of death among children. Malnourished children suffer more frequent and severe diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles, and infection deepens malnutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies, food insecurity, and poverty compound the harm, while obesity brings its own risks to immune defense. Advanced understanding of these interactions equips leaders to interpret scientific evidence, shape policy, support feeding and prevention, and advocate for those overlooked. As food systems, climate, and conflict reshape access to nutrition, informed leaders are needed everywhere to help churches and mission organizations serve with competence, humility, and compassion.
Scripture presents a God who provides food for his creatures, who is concerned for the hungry and the sick, and who calls his people to love the neighbor. This course grounds the study of nutrition and immunity in that witness, recalling biblical care for the poor, the widow, and the afflicted, as well as Jesus’ ministry of feeding and healing. Students integrate theological reflection on the dignity of every image-bearer and stewardship of God’s provision.
The missio Dei declares that God is on mission to redeem the world and sends his people into it. Hunger and preventable infection afflict the communities to which the church is sent. This course frames graduate study of nutrition and immunity as preparation for sent leaders who enter hurting places with compassion and competence. Understanding how food, health, and disease interact allows the church to participate in God’s mission to heal, restore, and reconcile creation.
Nutritional vulnerability is shaped by context. Poverty, food insecurity, sanitation, conflict, and feeding practices determine who is undernourished and who falls ill. Students analyze how these conditions, together with local diets, influence immunity and the course of infection in different regions. Learners evaluate why an intervention that succeeds in one setting may fail in another. This attentiveness to place reflects the incarnation, in which God entered a particular place to meet people where they live.
Hunger and disease cross borders, languages, and cultures, and effective responses depend on mutual respect. Students examine how food customs, health beliefs, and traditional healing shape how communities understand and respond to illness. They evaluate why culturally sensitive education and local knowledge are essential for lasting change. Drawing on the model of Christ who crossed boundaries to dwell among us, the course prepares leaders to serve alongside people of other cultures as partners and learners.
Knowledge of nutrition matters only when it leads to action. This course emphasizes the practical logic of nutrition and immunity: recognizing signs of malnutrition and deficiency, understanding how infection raises nutritional needs, and evaluating how feeding programs, supplementation, breastfeeding, and sanitation protect health. Through case analysis and applied discussion, students examine how clinicians and community health workers reason from diet and exposure to risk. They gain insight into what effective, sustainable, and compassionate care requires.
Learning in this course engages the whole person. Through case analysis and reflection, students encounter the human realities behind malnutrition: children stunted by hunger, mothers weakened by repeated infection, and families caught in poverty. These encounters invite students to examine their assumptions, fears, and callings. As they consider the cost of service among the suffering, students are shaped by the Spirit toward humility, courage, and compassion, becoming leaders whose lives embody God’s love for neighbors.
