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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Stanford Introduction to Food and Health by Stanford University

4.7
stars
30,760 ratings

About the Course

Around the world, we find ourselves facing global epidemics of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and other predominantly diet-related diseases. To address these public health crises, we urgently need to explore innovative strategies for promoting healthful eating. There is strong evidence that global increases in the consumption of heavily processed foods, coupled with cultural shifts away from the preparation of food in the home, have contributed to high rates of preventable, chronic disease. In this course, learners will be given the information and practical skills they need to begin optimizing the way they eat. This course will shift the focus away from reductionist discussions about nutrients and move, instead, towards practical discussions about real food and the environment in which we consume it. By the end of this course, learners should have the tools they need to distinguish between foods that will support their health and those that threaten it. In addition, we will present a compelling rationale for a return to simple home cooking, an integral part of our efforts to live longer, healthier lives. View the trailer for the course here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7x1aaZ03xU...

Top reviews

AE

Jun 21, 2018

It was an amazing course that allowed for me to be much more conscious of what I was eating and pushed me to strive to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Overall, it was very entertaining and informative!

GG

Oct 7, 2021

this course changed my view on healthy eating and also instilled healthy cooking habits in me! I absolutely oved the simple , delicious and healthy recipes! definitely trying them out ! Thank you Maya

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7201 - 7225 of 8,813 Reviews for Stanford Introduction to Food and Health

By Anne C

•

Feb 1, 2016

This is a great introductory and time efficient course that allows anyone to get a brief overview of a healthy life style. This course, aside from the first video, does not go into the nutritional value of food or micro nutrient variables. So, if you'd like to get more information on how to cultivate your own healthy life style this is a great choice. However, if you'd like the more scientific side of things this course is not for you.

By Delisa O

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Sep 22, 2016

This course was great for an introductory course to food and health because it emphasized getting back to the basics of real food and cooking simply. It lost a star because I felt like there were certain topics that needed a more in depth and less cursory approach. They were almost dismissive at times for the sake of "keeping it simple" whereas a simple suggestion about washing produce to remove pesticides could've been helpful.

By Alexx H

•

Aug 27, 2021

This course was very helpful and motivating to change current food habits and trends. I learned some valuable tips and gained a few recipe ideas to try for healthier eating at home. This course also encourages me to cook at home more and have more control over what I'm putting in my body. The combination of interviews, examples, and data points were very effective in communicating the overall course message and objective.

By Stephanie C

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Feb 21, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed the course but was looking for more, as in a Part II. I am not sure how the Week 5 fits in- is it actually part of the course? Nevertheless the GF recipes were a bonus as my diet is GF as much as possible.

I have just one comment about the quizzes: the answer to one of the questions was actually in the next week’s lesson.

Good way to keep learning! I am new to this and will continue online learning.

By Anabella D

•

Sep 5, 2021

This is a great introductory course for people who are looking some basic direction into eating in building sustainable healthy eating habits. Much of the content though is intended for people who live in highly industrialised western countries. As a Latin American, I found some of the content was a bit common sense for people from this part of the world, where we are luckily still not eating as much processed food.

By Maurice A P

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Aug 19, 2020

I knew much of this material, and I agree with most of it. I disagree that keeping grains in the diet is a good thing. Many diabetics would be better off not eating grains. I am allergic to wheat, rye, oats, and corn. In short, I am allergic to most grains. I became much healthier when I began to avoid grains. Greens are much more nutrient dense than any grain out there, and I love collard greens and salads.

By Randy W

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Jun 19, 2020

Well-balanced and chucked into digestible segments for public consumption and learning. Animation and conversations with Michael Pollen works well to vary to the deliver of information and story line. A couple content errors should be corrected: one of the double bonds in the unsaturated fatty acid has 5 bonds on a carbon, and statement that there is only one essential fatty acid is not correct as far as I know.

By Marcela L

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Apr 15, 2020

I liked a lot the course ,even if it is a basic one. I eat 95% homemade food ,so many of the things they were

talking about are already things I do in my each day routine,I even take my own food to work so I do not eat around junky food. I appreciated the information and the ideeas to help make it easier to cook at home and be more careful about what one eats and the tips of moderating the quantity. Thank you !

By Vasundhara

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Feb 21, 2018

The information in the video was very informative and will assist me in taking informed judgement about the food and its nutritional value when i go to the supermarket next time. It gave me new dimension of looking at food and also learned lot of new recipes. My must try is going to be ricotta cake and i also love the fact that the recipes will assist to those who are gluten free as well. Great course over all!!

By Neil R

•

Oct 7, 2017

After finishing this course, I can confidently say that I do have a better understanding when it comes to the nutritional component (e.g. micronutrient and macronutrient values) and quality of food. It is simple to understand and the information given is well presented. There might be some things and ideas that I don't agree with, but overall the knowledge you can gain from this short course is worth the time.

By Yulia K

•

Apr 26, 2017

The course is easy to listen and comprehend, and all material is pretty practical. However, it is rather superficial. I myself maintain a healthy lifestyle, and I didn't learn almost anything new from it (i'd say, around 5% of the information was new to me). I expected more. On the other hand, it's a good course for people with weight&lifestyle problems to figure out first steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

By Karen H

•

Sep 16, 2023

Loved it until it got to the cooking and recipes that all involved animal products and did not mention substitutes (like "instead of cow's milk you could use almond or soy milk"), there was not one vegan recipe, unless you start with leaving certain items out, which I understood was not the goal. I am a WFPB SOS Vegan so seeing so much eggs, chicken, butter, milk, etc. being used was not what I had expected.

By Giselle M

•

Mar 15, 2018

Very easy and nice way to present food and health, but I really believe it is also important to consume organic as much as possible and it should be incentivises , as we know pesticide in excess is also harmful in the long run for our health and planet, if we want to educate the population, let's educate and also taking our planet into consideration, as we have the 17 development goals to achieve by 2030.

By Sarah A

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Sep 6, 2016

Very informative course, which has encouraged me to research the topic further and to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Based on my research, however, I believe a mistake might have been made. According to the instructional material, the only group of essential fatty acids is omega-3. Based on my research, however, essential fatty acids include ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid, and LA, which is an omega-6 fatty acid.

By Adith M M

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Oct 26, 2022

First of all ,It was great learning experience overall .The course itself was structured in clearly manner and the lectures were really engaging and were also short and crisp.The only thing which holds me back from giving a 5 star rating is the fact that this course covers the western diet and me ,being an indian,a lot af things were'nt relatable.

But in a nutshell ,it was a nice ride onboard this course.

By Mariam A

•

Jun 4, 2020

I really enjoyed this course. I would have liked to learn more about the science behind these claims (the first week was excellent for that), and I was uncomfortable with choosing "going vegan is not sustainable" because much of the research shows that it certainly is. I did really enjoy learning about how good fruits and vegetables are for the human body! I was less interested in how to cook. Thank you!

By Jiangping

•

Sep 6, 2023

This course is really a helpful reminder for mothers especially for mothers preparing food for kids or for the family. Keep healthy and be happy! The learning experience is light and pleasant. The knowledge is valuable. I guess many of us may have known some of the nutrition concepts and knowledge before, but it is still very useful to follow the instructions and review the practical knowledge!

By Mohit

•

Jan 19, 2016

I am currently pursuing this course and I find this course to be very simple for a rookie to understand and implement. It clears a large amount of myths that we have regarding different types of food. I understand that in order to gain full benefit of this course we need to implement the stuff presented in this course. So I will start the implementation and additional research required very soon.

By Maribel Z

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Feb 3, 2016

Videos are very clear and very well explained... Nice animations, graphs, ... definitely a great piece of work.

However, I have to say that I expected more content/theory on food and health inside our body rather than general advises on how to cook at home. I am a person that cooks already at home and does not like to eat much processed food, so majority of videos I found too simple and basic...

By Bayu C

•

Feb 10, 2021

Great content and great quality of delivery of lectures.T hese courses are very helpful and it's such an inspiring guidelines for people to live a healthy diet.

I like the enthusiam of the instructor. The instructor put in a lot of effort to generate the interest.

The explanations and analogies related to the topic in discussion Everything was great about this course. Thanks i really appreciate

By Juan J B L

•

Apr 2, 2018

It is a good place to start thinking about how to change your eating habbits. I looked for a course like this on YT but no luck. I didn't want to research diets, I wanted a holistic understanding of nutrition itself so I can make personally informed decisions. I want to understand how and why things work and don't work, rather than just trusting diet; this course really helped kick that off.

By Lakshmi V

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Oct 11, 2017

This course is presented in a neat and friendly manner. The simple language in explanation and illustration makes it enjoyable to delve into the course. I personally liked the way suggestions were presented in taking care of one's own and family health, rather than making it technical. I am glad I to have taken up and completed the course. Wishing many more delightful courses from Maya Adam.

By Willemina S

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Feb 3, 2023

It is an excellent introduction and the learnings are practical and can be implemented immediately. I really enjoyed the course, but I was looking for something with a bit more depth. Maybe a short study that is also referring to scientific evidence. Nevertheless the course further encouraged me to learn more about food and health, so I believe mission accomplished with this introduction.

By Hugo

•

May 31, 2020

Interesting course which remember me fundamentals of nutrition and best practices to cook healthy.

I regret that course dont go more far on nutrition skills or vegetarian recipes for example but it's a good course to introduce nutrition for a person who wants to change his bad consummation habits and increase his health and his nutrition skills.

Hugo (sorry for my bad english, i'm french)

By Deborah

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Sep 6, 2016

This was an easy course and I found the information very helpful in making you aware of processed food. I think it could have been a bit richer by exploring some other areas of health and food. I felt like the main focus was on processed food. The good thing though I learnt so much about processed food and I'm making every effort to cut it and eventually eliminat it from my diet.