In these free online nutrition courses, you’ll have a handful of free courses that can help you advance your nutritional career by helping yourself and others to improve their diet. They will maintain a healthy weight, boost their immune system and improve their health as well.
“Health,” they said, “is wealth.” Learning about food safety shouldn’t be for a certain set of people, it should even be a compulsory course for all.
Because, time and time we’ve heard how what is on the plate affects what happens in the body, and it is not far from the truth. What we eat can determine our chances of getting cancer, which is one of the most deadly diseases.
Also, what you eat can decide how healthy your mental health is, in fact, a free mental health course is advisable if you want to stay mentally safe. Further, there are some remarkable health benefits you can also get by going outdoors.
Before we go deeper into our free online nutrition courses, let’s know what a nutrition course is.
What is a Nutrition Course?
Before we can explain what a nutrition course is, let’s see what nutrition means. Nutrition is simply when you prepare that delicious meal, and serve it in the dining room. Then your family will gather and enjoy that chicken and waffles, or that avocado toast.
In essence, nutrition is when you take food into your body and absorb all the nutrients that come from it.
A nutritional course is a sub-disciplinary course that focuses on what we eat and its effect on our body and health. Nutrition and nutrients play a very important role in our health and the health of those around us.
That’s why we compiled these free online nutrition courses to help you learn all you need about food, your health, and your lifestyle.
Benefits of Online Nutrition Courses
As I mentioned earlier, free online nutrition courses shouldn’t just be for a selected few, but it’s what everyone should learn, even if it’s only the basics. Here are some benefits you’ll get from studying an online nutrition course.
Strong Health
A popular saying goes like this “You’re what you eat.” That couldn’t be said better, because these free online nutrition courses will teach how what is on your plate affects your human health.
Cooking at home helps you and your kids stay healthy and flee from obesity, baking at home also brings togetherness amongst the family, you can learn or even improve your baking skills.
Advance Career
If you want to become a nutritionist or dietician, then learning from one of these free online nutrition courses will be a great pursuit. You can earn a certificate that can improve your career, and you can do it all at your own convenience, and pace.
Your Own Speed
Most of these free online nutrition courses are at your own speed, that is, you can finish them whenever you want. So if you want to finish them as quickly as possible you can start applying the principles, or you are very busy and you want to take it slowly.
Either way, it’s all up to you.
Your Convenience
One of the beauties of online courses is you can take them anywhere. If you’re on the plane, in the office, at home, or in your pajamas, it’s all up to you.
Free
Another interesting thing about free online courses is you don’t have to pay a dime to enroll in them. You can get a Nutrition diploma online, or take a short program all for free.
Free Online Nutrition Courses
The free online nutrition courses available will be listed and discussed in this section. They are as follows;
- Stanford Introduction to Food and Health
- Child Nutrition and Cooking (Beginners)
- Weight Management: Beyond Balancing Calories (Beginner)
- Human Health – Diet and Nutrition
- Introduction to the Role of Nutrition in Human Health
- Nutrition and Cancer (Intermediate)
- Nutrition, Heart Disease, and Diabetes (Intermediate)
- Nutrition Certification Course
- FREE Starter Nutrition Course
- Plant Based Diets: Food for a Sustainable Future
- Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome
- Mental Health, and Nutrition
- Nutrition and Health Level 2 (Intermediate and advanced)
- Level 2 Certificate in Improving Personal Exercise, Health and Nutrition (Mixed)
- Meal Planning, Sanitation, and Therapeutic Nutrition
- Culinary Skills and Techniques
- Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy
1. Stanford Introduction to Food and Health (Beginners)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that more than 868,000 students have enrolled in. The course runs approximately 7 hours and it is a 100% online class meant for beginners.
Your instructor, Maya Adam, MD Lecturer at Stanford School of Medicine will teach you background on food and nutrients. You and she will be examining some of the things that have contributed to our current obesity and overweight.
This is one of the free online nutrition courses where the first week runs for one hour and it has 6 videos to guide you in the introduction of this course. After the first week of classes, you will take an assessment to test what you’ve learned during the class.
A second week will take you on contemporary trends in eating which also takes one hour to complete and has 5 videos. The third and fourth weeks will teach you about the future direction of health, and both of them run for one hour each.
This is one of the free online nutrition courses where the fifth and final week will teach you on “cooking workshop,” which has 10 recipe videos that run for three hours and it has 10 readings. You will see recipes like “How To Make Gluten-Free Crêpes, How To Make Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken,” and so many more.
Once you are done with the course and have taken your final assessment you will be granted access to get your certificate, which will require a little fee to access. The course is offered by Stanford University through Coursera.
2. Child Nutrition and Cooking (Beginners)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses offered by Stanford University through Coursera. Over 489,000 students have enrolled, and it takes 11 hours to complete.
According to Coursera, 18% of the students started a new career after completing the course and 21% got better career benefits after completing the course. Your instructor, Maya Adam, will discuss the importance of cooking at home, what makes up a balanced diet, sustainable eating, and more.
3. Weight Management: Beyond Balancing Calories (Beginner)
This course is one of the free online nutrition courses that is offered by Emory University through Coursera, and more than 140,000 students have enrolled. The course will take approximately 17 hours to complete, and you’ll understand obesity, how to manage it, and the role stress, exercise, and sleep play in health.
4 Human Health – Diet and Nutrition
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that is offered by Alison and runs for 1.5 to 3 hours, over 58,000 students have enrolled. This certificate course will teach you how to stay healthy.
Further, you will be learning the daily recommended dietary intake for carbohydrates, protein, vegetables, and fat. And you can use your knowledge from this course to stay healthy and also help other people to remain healthy.
The course starts by teaching you about your health and proceeds to teach you about diet and food selection. When you are done you will be given an assessment that requires an 80% pass mark to have access to your certificate.
5. Introduction to the Role of Nutrition in Human Health (Beginners)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that is offered by NPTEL through Alison. It runs for 3 to 4 hours and has over 11,000 students.
This beginner’s course in nutrition will introduce you to the relationship between health, nutrition, and food. Also, you will learn how the body absorbs food, digest it, and how it also utilizes nutrients.
The course will take you on a journey from introduction to nutrition and health, then, teach you classes about nutrients and their importance. Finally, it summarizes it with an introduction to minerals, after that, you will take the final assessment that will give you access to your certificate.
6. Nutrition and Cancer (Intermediate)
This course is very important to anyone who loves to reduce his/her risk of getting cancer through healthy eating. Because cancer is now the leading cause of death in many countries it has overtaken cardiovascular disease.
Sad to say, it causes one in every 8 deaths in the world, and this mostly occurs in low and middle-income countries. That is why this is one of the free online nutrition courses that should be on your top list.
It is expected to be completed within 5 weeks and you can take the course between 6 to 8 hours per week. It’s a self-paced course and it is totally free, in which your instructors are professors, assistant professors, and researchers in the health field.
The course is offered by Wageningen University & Research through edX.
7. Nutrition, Heart Disease, and Diabetes (Intermediate)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that will teach you the importance of good food and lifestyle in the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. This is another course offered by Wageningen
University & Research through edX, and it runs for 5 weeks with 6 to 8 hours per week.
Further, you will learn the current research progress on diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, and what is being done to prevent these diseases in individuals and a whole population through dietary and quality lifestyle.
You will also learn the role food plays in diseases, especially diabetes which is one of the major causes of death in the world. The course is for professionals in the field of health and nutrition
8. Nutrition Certification Course (All-level)
This is a 16-week class offered by Shaw Academy, where they will be taking you by hand and teaching you human nutrition from beginning to advanced. It is an all-level course where over 464,000 students have enrolled.
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that has 4 modules, 32 lessons, and assessments, and you will be awarded a certificate when you are done with the whole class. However, the free course only lasts for four weeks; the rest of the weeks require payment.
To have access to all the remaining weeks, and course resources requires a little payment.
9. FREE Starter Nutrition Course
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that will go beyond giving you nutritional lesson value. It will give you bonuses such as demo modules, amazing webinars, self-assessments and quizzes, career paths, and a lot more. This course is offered by the Health Science Academy.
10. Plant-Based Diets: Food for a Sustainable Future
This course is offered by Wageningen University & Research through edX, and it takes 7 weeks to complete. You’ll be learning the science of three global issues, that is; climate change, infectious diseases, and chronic diseases.
In addition, this is one of the free online nutrition courses where you’ll learn how what you eat can decide if you will be susceptible to these.
11. Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome
This course will take 6 weeks to complete, and within these 6 weeks, you’ll learn how the human microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining normal gut function. You’ll also learn how it plays an important role in the digestion of some nutrients, and how it helps your early life to develop.
12. Mental Health and Nutrition
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that will teach you the kind of food you need to eat to maintain your mental health. The course is offered by the University of Canterbury through edX and it takes 8 weeks to complete. More than 70,000 students have applied for it.
13. Nutrition and Health Level 2 (Intermediate and advanced)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses offered by Reed Courses, and it takes 15 weeks to complete. You can take the course directly from your home but you must be 19 years and above and a resident of England.
You’ll be focusing on five major food groups to learn how diet can affect someone’s health, then practically learn how weight management works, and more inside the course. If you intend to pursue a nutritionist career or become a lot better in your current job role, then this course is for you.
There are some assessments during the course, when you’re done with the classes you’ll take your final exam, which when you pass, you’ll have access to the certificate.
14. Level 2 Certificate in Improving Personal Exercise, Health and Nutrition (Mixed)
This is one of the free online nutrition courses that require you to reside either in England or Scotland, have lived in the EU for the past 3 years, and have to be 19 years and above. It’s offered by Reed Courses and it takes 4 weeks to complete.
It’s an online course where you’ll have access to a live tutor and once you’re done you’ll take an exam that will grant you access to your certificate, which comes with an additional cost. This course will go beyond basic health and wellness and teach you anatomy and physiology.
You’ll also learn how effective nutrition can affect exercising, then you’ll learn to measure personal fitness levels.
15. Meal Planning, Sanitation, and Therapeutic Nutrition
This course is provided by NPTEL through Alison, and it takes 4 to 5 hours to complete. It will introduce you to principles of therapeutic nutrition, water purification, nutritional disorders, meal planning, and a lot more lessons.
When you’re done with the classes, you’ll be assessed and when you pass the assessment you’ll have access to the certificate of completion.
16. Culinary Skills and Techniques
This course is provided by Training Facility UK through Alison, consists of 3 modules, and takes 3 to 4 hours to complete. This course will outline the ten traits that a chef must possess in order to pursue the culinary arts. The course will then examine gastronomy, the ‘art of choosing and cooking good food, and show you how it encourages cultural awareness and fosters a stronger bond between people and their traditions.
They will explain how to properly preserve and cook various kinds of fish and meat. They will then cover food hygiene, health, and safety and describe food safety legislation, microbiological hazards, and physical, chemical, and allergenic hazards.
17. Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy
Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy offers an overview of the latest research findings and international recommendations on a variety of nutrition-related aspects and outcomes of pregnancy. Ensuring a healthy nutritional status and lifestyle prior to and during pregnancy is one of the best ways to help support the healthy growth and development of the unborn child.
They will look at how a healthy diet and lifestyle should ideally be achieved prior to conception and provide recommendations for pre-conception counseling of women. This course takes approximately 7 hours to complete, with 4 modules. More than 97,000 students are enrolled.
18. Diabetes – the Essential Facts
With more than 79,000 students enrolled, this course will provide you with an introduction to the most recent research in the field of prevention and treatment of diabetes as well as a broader understanding of the situation in different communities, rich and poor, across the world, where diabetes threatens public health. What kind of disease is diabetes, who has it, and who is at risk of getting it? And what are the roles of medicine, exercise, and nutrition when trying to prevent, delay, or treat diabetes?
During the course, you will meet researchers and experts from Imperial College London, Emory University in Atlanta, Steno Diabetes Center in Copenhagen as well as the School of Global Health and the Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen.
They work with very different aspects of diabetes, from microbiology to global public health, but what ties them together is the belief that it is a global responsibility to combat diabetes, and this fight can only be won through new knowledge and global collaboration. The course is made up of 3 modules with approximately 10 hours to complete.
Conclusion
Now that you have seen these free online nutrition courses, you can freely enroll in any one of your choice and get certified at the end of the course.
Free Online Nutrition Courses – FAQs
How do I become a certified nutritionist UK?
You can either get a degree from a reputable University in the UK or get a certificate from an online program like these free online nutrition courses we’ve listed. In fact, amongst the list (no. 18 & 19) are courses exclusively for England and Scotland residents.
Where can I learn more about nutrition?
After going through these free online nutrition courses and you’re not satisfied, you can go to a good college and pursue a degree in nutrition.
What qualifications do you need to be a nutritionist?
The least qualification you need to become a nutritionist is a bachelor’s degree. A master’s degree will give you a higher chance of improving your career.
What is the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist?
The major difference between the two is a dietitian must receive a license to practice while it’s not a prerequisite for a nutritionist.
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