The Science of Nutrition (FutureLearn)

Offered by The Open University,
The Science of Nutrition (FutureLearn)

Get an introduction to nutritional science. Explore the biology, chemistry and physics of food and how our bodies digest it. Have you ever looked at a food label and wondered what kilocalories really mean? Would you like to know more about fat, protein or carbohydrates, and how our bodies process them? This online nutrition course provides the answers.

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You’ll explore biology, finding out how our digestive system and bloodstream process and transport food. You’ll use physics to work out how much energy food contains. And through chemistry, you’ll discover the role that acid and enzymes play in digestion.
Finally, you’ll consider the science behind dietary advice and why we’re facing an obesity epidemic worldwide.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Demonstrate and understand how food is processed and then used in the body.
  • Describe and know about food allergies and intolerances.
  • Apply knowledge to understand healthy eating advice and identify how it varies in different countries.
  • Interpret and understand the basic components of food.
  • Discuss and be able to make sense of food labels and peform basic calculations of energy in food.
  • Describe and understand possible reasons for the current obesity epidemic.
  • Be able to conduct simple experiments using easily available materials.
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