Food for Thought: The Relationship Between Food, Gut and Brain (FutureLearn)

Food for Thought: The Relationship Between Food, Gut and Brain (FutureLearn)

The gut and brain are very closely linked. Explore how neurology, the microbiome and more interact to affect health. Find out how your diet affects your brain, and your brain affects your diet. Over the last few years, the importance of the link between gut and brain has become clear. On this course you’ll explore this complex relationship.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

You’ll learn how the brain works, and is affected by diet and nutritional deficiencies. You’ll also discover less known, cutting-edge subjects such as the gut-brain axis, the microbiome, and the relationship between food and reproductive health.
Ultimately, you’ll be able to explain this two-sided relationship: the role of diet on brain function, and its opposite - how the brain can determine our dietary choices.

What topics will you cover?
The course will focus on the relationship between food, brain and mind:

  • How does the brain work?
  • How do emotions and thoughts affect our food choices?
  • How do diets and nutritional deficiencies affect our brain?
  • Reward systems and their relationship with food
  • The link between the microbiome and brain

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...
-Explain the role of our diet on brain functioning
-Reflect on the role of psychological and neurobiological factors in our food choices
-Reflect on the possible causes (biological, social, psychological) of unhealthy and pathological eating behaviours
-Describe the connection between the brain and our digestive system (gut)
-Discuss the topics of the course and their relationship with daily life

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Managing Change in a Healthcare Environment (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Managing Change in a Healthcare Environment (FutureLearn)

Understand why change happens in healthcare environments and learn how to improve your response. In rapidly changing world, with new healthcare roles emerging and the complexity of care increasing, being able to respond to change is vital. On this course for healthcare professionals, you will explore the issue of change in healthcare environments, and learn how to improve your response to change.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Nutrition and Disease Prevention (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Nutrition and Disease Prevention (FutureLearn)

Learn about the relationship between diet and disease and discover the role a nutrient-rich diet can play in disease prevention. Understand how good nutrition can prevent disease. Diet-related diseases and obesity levels are rising. On this course you will explore the relationship between diet and disease and the role diet plays in weight management. You will examine the latest research studies to consider how poor nutrition can lead to ill health, and whether what we eat can help to prevent the onset of common diseases, such as cancer.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Infant Nutrition: from Breastfeeding to Baby's First Solids (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Deakin University

Infant Nutrition: from Breastfeeding to Baby's First Solids (FutureLearn)

Learn what good infant nutrition looks like, how and what to feed a baby, and how to start weaning. Explore the principles of good nutrition in the first 12 months of a baby’s life. In this insightful course led by nutritional experts from Deakin University, you’ll trace the milestones in a baby’s first year of life to learn about the principles of good infant nutrition and how you can apply them. You’ll explore the nutritional requirements of young children, as well as why healthy food for babies is so essential.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Digital Wellbeing (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of York

Digital Wellbeing (FutureLearn)

Do digital technologies affect our wellbeing? Explore the concepts of health, relationships and society in the digital age. Discover how digital technology affects our wellbeing. What is the impact of digital technology on our health, relationships and society? How do we ensure our own digital wellbeing? Explore the answers to these questions and more with this course.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Point Prevalence Surveys (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Point Prevalence Surveys (FutureLearn)

Learn how to use Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) to measure antibiotic consumption and fight antimicrobial resistance. Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) are an important tool for healthcare professionals to use to assess and improve antibiotic prescribing locally, nationally and globally. This online course - led by experts from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) - looks at their use. You’ll discover the importance of measuring antibiotic consumption and how PPS can help.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Biochemistry: the Molecules of Life (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Biochemistry: the Molecules of Life (FutureLearn)

Explore the impact of biochemistry on bioenergy and health, discovering why graduates are in demand; with the Biochemical Society. Biochemistry brings together all of the sciences to study the chemical and physical processes that occur in living organisms. It truly is the science of life. As a scientific discipline in its own right, biochemistry has a major impact on all areas of the life sciences and biochemists are in high demand among employers.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
The Open University

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn)

Use literary and archaeological evidence to see how ancient Greeks and Romans approached health, well-being and societal issues. What did being healthy in ancient Rome or Greece look like? How can we tell what well-being meant in ancient times? This online course will help you investigate these questions, using both literary and archaeological evidence, to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Digital Health for Cancer Management: Smart Health Technologies in Complex Diseases (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Digital Health for Cancer Management: Smart Health Technologies in Complex Diseases (FutureLearn)

Learn how new digital health technologies are transforming cancer management with this course for healthcare professionals. Recent advances in cancer treatment and management have lead to people with cancer living longer than ever before, now healthcare must begin to consider how to help people with cancer live healthily. On this course you will explore and discuss how new digital health technologies, like wearables, social media and home sensors, are starting to transform the management of cancer.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Birmingham

Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn)

Learn about how your liver works, ways to look after it and how liver damage is caused, studied and treated around the world. We are currently experiencing an international explosion of liver disease that continues to have enormous impact upon healthcare systems and global health. In the UK we have seen a 20% increase in deaths related to liver disease since 2000 and this pattern reflects the global situation.

Self Paced
3 Weeks