Top 10 Free Nutrition Courses With Certificate Available Online
While devouring that scrumptious mouth-watering mozzarella cheese sticks, the thought of nutrition does not occur to our brain. I mean, how could it? We all love cheese way too much.
However, at some point in the long run we may end up regretting having way too much unhealthy food. This is where the role of proper diet and nutrition comes into our lives.
We have always been told to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle but have we ever been told how to do that? Well, if you haven’t then we have gathered the best free nutrition courses the internet has to offer, just for you.
What Is Nutrition?
Nutrition is basically the consumption of food and nutrients which help our body in growth and development.
Nutrition Courses That You Should Get Free
Nutrition courses are the study of the effect of food we eat on our body and overall health. The focus is to discover better food options and improve our health and lifestyle. The need for a nutritionist is increasing in our daily life because they have to guide us on how to adopt a healthier lifestyle. They ensure that we do not only eat food that looks delicious and tastes heavenly but enjoy food that is good for our body.
The courses range over from athlete nutrition, ideal fitness goals like weight loss plans or strength training, or in general to design diet plans for patients with certain diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure etc.
Having a certification/diploma as a nutritionist is beneficial in numerous ways, it has personal benefits as well as creates a number of job opportunities like sports nutritionist, food labeling specialist, etc. Alongside that, it helps people acknowledge how their diet affects their emotional wellbeing and mental health and not just their body. Nutrition courses, in general, can be taken for your own well-being and fitness and for people who want to improve their chronic conditions.
Mentioned below are 10 free nutrition courses which will definitely help you in the future. Keep reading!
1. Introduction to Food and Health by Stanford University
Coursera
This course promotes healthy eating habits, and majorly focuses not on basic nutrients and the depths of nutrition, rather will help learners distinguish between foods that are good for their health and those that threaten it, and raises awareness of the importance of healthy diet to avoid public health crises.
- Duration – 5 weeks
- Time – approximately 7 hours to complete
- 100% online course
- Flexible deadlines
- Self paced learning
- Subtitles in 14 different languages
- Shareable certificate
2. Human Health – Diet and Nutrition
Alison
This quick course on Alison teaches you about how to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle in an accelerating world. To maintain a fit body there are certain recommended amounts of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, iron etc you have to intake on a day to day basis, this course will tell you all about adapting a great life to keep you fit and healthy.
- Time – 1.5 hours – 3 hours
- More than 25000 students have taken this course.
- It offers a certificate on completion of course.
3. Weight Management: Beyond Balancing Calories
Coursera
With a rating of 4.7 and over 100,000 students enrolled, this beginner course offers an insight into how and why obesity is becoming a challenge in our society and how to overcome and control it.
The course covers how not only diet, but other factors such as sleep and exercise also contribute to our overall body health and teaches you how to create a diet or weight loss plan according to your desires.
- Duration – approximately 18 hours, divided over five weeks.
- It allows flexibility in deadlines that help students complete the free course at their own pace.
- 100% online
- Upon completion, the site provides a certificate.
- The course is offered in a number of different languages, like German, Dutch and Arabic etc.
- https://www.coursera.org/learn/weight-management-beyond-balancing-calories
4. Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy
Coursera
Diet and nutrition play a huge role in our lives at every point, one of the most crucial points being pregnancy. Pregnancy brings a ton of joy in life and brings a beautiful journey that involves a lot of midnight cravings from sweet to spicy meals.
However, it is important to know how to actually maintain a balanced and healthy diet in order to bring a healthy child into this world. This free course offered by a professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) does exactly that. It teaches about nutrition and lifestyle to ensure a healthy pregnancy, nutrition related outcomes, and even practical advice for pregnancy.
- Duration – approximately 7 hours divided over 4 weeks.
- It permits flexible deadlines for learning at own rate.
- 100% online
- Upon completion, the site provides a certificate.
- The course is offered in a number of different languages, like Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic etc.
5. Mental Health and Nutrition
Edx
At some point in life, most of us, if not all, have struggled with our mental health. After a long time of research, science has concluded that what we eat does have an effect on our mental health and this free nutrition course by a professor at University of Canterbury breaks it down bit by bit for you. It helps learn the role of diet and nutrition in our mental health journey.
Whether you are someone who has their own mental wellbeing struggles or you wish to help someone overcome and improve theirs, or you want to enhance your general knowledge on this topic, we have the perfect free online course for you that you can take just at home.
- Duration – 8 weeks
- Self paced course with alterable deadlines for assignments.
- https://www.edx.org/course/mental-health-and-nutrition
6. Nutrition and Disease Prevention
Future Learn
This free nutrition course available on Future Learn discusses and teaches how the nutrients we consume can be utilized and used to prevent diseases such as cancer. The course gives an insight on how nutrient deficiency can cause health problems, introduces micronutrients and its role in our diet to prevent cancer and lastly how to eat healthy to keep diseases away.
- Duration – 4 weeks with 2 hours per week
- Learning at your own pace
- 100% online
- You can join a global classroom and learn with other people who share the same interest.
- https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/nutrition-disease-prevention#section-reviews
7. Introduction to Nutrition and Food Safety
Future learn
We have always been told to eat healthy to live a long happy life but have we ever been told which foods are truly good for us and which are not?
Sometimes even healthy foods can cause harm to us! Future Learn offers this course to teach the importance of a great lifestyle and how poor dietary choices can be harmful to us. The course majorly covers food inspection.
- Duration – 4 weeks with 2 hours per week
- 100% online
- Self paced learning
- Relevant and detailed learning
- Rating – 4.4
- https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/nutrition-food-safety
8. Nutrition, Exercise and Sports
Edx
Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? Football lovers are usually asked this question, everyone has variable answers. Sports and exercise is a fundamental part of life, if we don’t play, we might watch it.
Professional athletes have worked hard to reach the level they are at now, from practice to exercise and then the most important; nutrients to fuel their body for their games.
This course introduces the key concepts of sports nutrition and physiology, along discussing the role of micronutrients in this field and the relationship between nutrition, exercise and sports. If you’re anyone who is an athlete themselves, a professional trainer or just someone who wants general knowledge on the basics of this field, this free course is just for you!
- Duration – 6 weeks with 4-8 hours per week
- 100% online
- Learning at your own pace
- The course only requires you to have basic knowledge about nutrition.
- https://www.edx.org/course/nutrition-exercise-and-sports
9. Food as Medicine
Monash university /Future Learn
For centuries, food has been used as medicine in different cultures of the world. Confusing, right?
We didn’t even understand until coming across this amazing course offered by Monash University. As nutrition science has progressed over time, we have discovered more vital uses of food and nutrients found in it. This course teaches about the link between medicine and our daily routine nutrition. It tells us about the role of food in affecting our brain, gut, fertility, and other body parts and processes.
- Duration – 3 weeks with 4 hours per week
- 100% online
- Self paced learning
- It is an Association for Nutrition (AfN) certified course.
- https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-as-medicine
10. Nutrition and Health: Micronutrients and Malnutrition
Edx
According to a WHO report from June, around 45% of deaths in children under the age of five are due to undernutrition, mainly occurring in low-income countries. Malnutrition has become a serious threat in today’s world and causes a number of diseases and health issues in the long run.
Proper nutrition should be a priority for everyone. Since we have not been educated enough on this topic, Edx brings us a course to learn all about micronutrients and malnutrition, it explains the basic roles of minerals and vitamins in life, the global impact of malnutrition, and much more.
- Duration – 7 weeks with 6-8 hours every week
- Flexible deadlines for assignments to complete at your own pace.
- 100% online
- Requires basic knowledge about biology.
- https://www.edx.org/course/nutrition-and-health-micronutrients-and-malnutriti
Final Analysis
You should always have awareness of what kind of nutrition you need to consume in different stages of life. So stop wasting time and enroll in one of the courses you find most helpful. Let’s take care of ourselves and our loved ones!