Rebuilding Our Relationship with Food (Coursera)

Offered by Stanford University,
Rebuilding Our Relationship with Food (Coursera)

Have you ever made a conscious effort to change the way you eat (for health or other reasons) and then felt frustrated when your plans were derailed? You’re not alone. The best laid plans are often sabotaged by a food environment that makes it increasingly hard to make healthier food choices. This can leave many people feeling mistrustful of food or feeling that our relationship with food is somehow broken. In this course, we’ll explore the history of our changing food environment, the science behind cravings for unhealthy foods AND most importantly, you’ll learn some concrete strategies for rebuilding your relationship with food.

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

You’ll learn to practice mindful eating and self-compassion (proven strategies for supporting healthier food choices) as well as designing a customized plan to protect your relationship with food and improve the health of your greatest asset - you! I can’t wait to start on this adventure together.

What You Will Learn

  • How to practice mindful eating or food mindfulness.
  • How to practice self-compassion and rebuild your relationship with food.

Course 2 of 3 in the Food Sustainability, Mindful Eating, and Healthy Cooking Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1
What Happened to Our Relationship with Food?
In this module, we’ll examine how the commercial food industry separates us from our food and how this impacts our long-term health. We’ll explore how attitudes towards food can differ across different global regions and different cultures and how our attitudes toward food can affect our health. Finally, we’ll examine the ways in which food can support our optimal performance at work or at play.

WEEK 2
Moderation, Balance, and Food
In this module, we’ll learn about why traditional, restrictive “diets” often fail us, how to begin reframing our thinking about food from “Am I allowed to eat this?” to “Is this food

WEEK 3
How to Practice Self-Compassion and Moderation
In this module you’ll learn about the components of self-compassion, a practice that can be used to support healthier food choices and eating behaviors. You’ll also learn about how our taste receptors respond to quantity vs quality and how we can use this knowledge to maximize our eating experience while protecting our health!

WEEK 4
Practicing Mindful Eating (Loving the Foods That Will Love You Back)
In this module, we’ll explore some of the ways in which we can rebuild a longstanding relationship with our food, by observing our own behaviors and developing customized strategies for letting go of habits that don’t serve us well. We’ll also learn more about the practice of mindful eating and how we can incorporate that practice into our daily lives.

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

Related Courses

An Introduction to the U.S. Food System: Perspectives from Public Health (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

An Introduction to the U.S. Food System: Perspectives from Public Health (Coursera)

A food system encompasses the activities, people and resources involved in getting food from field to plate. Along the way, it intersects with aspects of public health, equity and the environment. In this course, we will provide a brief introduction to the U.S. food system and how food production practices and what we choose to eat impacts the world in which we live. Through several case studies, we will discuss some key historical and political factors that have helped shape the current food system and consider alternative approaches from farm to fork.

Aug 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Life 101: Mental and Physical Self-Care (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Life 101: Mental and Physical Self-Care (Coursera)

This course will cover various topics that would teach students healthy lifestyle choices, the importance of mental and physical health and self-care. For each topic, an evidence-based lecture that would include scientific evidence will be presented and then students will be provided practical methods to practice what they have learned from the lectures. One of the main goals of this course is to inspire students to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes (edX) EdX
HarvardX,Harvard University

Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes (edX)

In Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes, explore the history of food and beverage fermentations and how tiny microbes change and enhance flavors, aromas, and tastes in our food. What’s living in your food? Many of the foods that we consume daily owe their distinct characteristics and flavors to microbes, specifically through a biochemical process of fermentation (using bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms to produce diverse foods).

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Feeding a Hungry Planet: Agriculture, Nutrition and Sustainability (edX) EdX
SDGAcademyX,SDG Academy

Feeding a Hungry Planet: Agriculture, Nutrition and Sustainability (edX)

How do we create a healthy and sustainable diet for the growing world population? Agriculture is more than waving fields of wheat; our ability to grow food from existing natural resources – and without decimating those resources – is key to sustainably feeding the world. In this course, learn about food security worldwide, the effects of malnutrition, how we manage ecosystems that provide food resources and more.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Public Health Perspectives on Sustainable Diets (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Public Health Perspectives on Sustainable Diets (Coursera)

What we eat and how we produce that food have significant effects on human health and the sustainability of our planet. But what is a ‘sustainable’ diet? A sustainable diet, as defined by the FAO, promotes health and well-being and provides food security for the present population while sustaining human and natural resources for future generations. This short course looks at the urgent need to address the sustainability of our food systems, including better understanding the complex relationship between diet and climate change. We’ll explore current research on dietary shifts needed in high, middle, and low-income countries to achieve both sustainability and food security goals and discuss evidence-based strategies to promote sustainable diets.

Aug 10th 2026
3 Weeks
Understanding Food Labels and Portion Sizes (Coursera) Coursera
National Academy of Sports Medicine

Understanding Food Labels and Portion Sizes (Coursera)

All of us have struggled to decipher the long list of ingredients and recommendations on our food labels. This course provides a deeper understanding of labeling standards and methods for estimating food portions essential for informed decision-making and healthy eating behaviors. You will learn the foundations of reading food labels (including supplement facts labels) as well as common obstacles faced when portioning food.

Aug 3rd 2026
1 Week
Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action (Coursera)

Are you concerned about climate change? Would you like to learn how to address and respond to this challenge? If so, this course is for you. Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action is intended to help learners understand, address and respond to climate change as individuals and in partnership with their communities and political leaders.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Feeding the World (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Feeding the World (Coursera)

This course will explore the concepts driving current food production science (population growth, urbanization, emerging affluence, resource constraints, and underlying biological limits) with the main focus on livestock production. Each of the major food animal species (dairy, swine, beef, and poultry) will be covered in terms of their universal life cycles, constraints to production and emerging societal issues.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Food Ethics (Coursera) Coursera
Princeton University

Food Ethics (Coursera)

We are what we eat--morally as well as molecularly. So how should concerns about animals, workers, the environment, and community inform our food choices? Can we develop viable foodways for growing populations while respecting race, ethnic, and religious differences? What does food justice look like in a global industrial food system where there are massive differences in resources, education, and food security?

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Chicken Behaviour and Welfare (Coursera) Coursera
University of Edinburgh

Chicken Behaviour and Welfare (Coursera)

This course explains the general principles of chicken behaviour and welfare, and the behavioural and physiological indicators that can be used to assess welfare in chickens kept in hobby flocks through to commercial farms. The focus is primarily on laying hens and meat chickens (broilers) although many of the principles are relevant to other types of poultry. The course is likely to be of interest to people who own chickens as pets or keep a small hobby flock, commercial egg and chicken meat producers, veterinarians and vet nurses.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks