Why I took nutrition and health courses
Nutrition and health courses are in high demand. Not surprisingly, given the growing concern for the general health of the world population.
Health and wellness have become a massive industry with a myriad of professional opportunities.
While some people seek nutrition and health courses to help them make informed dietary choices, others do it to pursue a carrier in health. In my case, it was a mixture of both.
In this post, I will explain why I felt the need to take nutrition and health courses and why I chose WageningenX. Furthermore, I will give you an overview of the courses I took and why I chose the certified versions.
1 – Why I decided to take nutrition and health courses.
2 – Why I chose WageningenX – Wageningen University & Research on edX.org
1 – Why I took nutrition and health courses
Once I committed to healthy living, knowing what to eat and what to avoid became paramount. However, following a balanced diet, especially when you are vegan, requires informed food planning.
My decision to take nutrition and health courses was based on three main reasons:
First, being vegan I wanted access to reliable information about food and nutrition to make informed healthy food choices.
When I went vegan I knew I had to make some adjustments, as I would be lacking some sources of macro and micronutrients, such as animal proteins, some fatty acids, calcium, iron, vitamin B12, just to name a few.
However, I was busy with other things and did not study how to transition from vegetarian to vegan without jeopardizing my health.
Initially, I made my food choices based on common sense and inspiration from photos of online vegan recipes. Admittedly not the wisest thing to do!
As a result, there were times when I knew my body was lacking something, I just didn’t know what.
The second reason why I took nutrition and health courses has to do with this blog. As I started to share some of my recipes, I felt a responsibility toward my readers. I wanted to create recipes with well-balanced nutritional value, not just recipes with random ingredients, even if all individually healthy.
2 – Why I chose Wageningen University & Research on edX (WageningenX)
Not very clear about what to look for, I started searching for different types of health-related coaching programs. Holistic health, nutrition, wellness and lifestyle were some of the coaching segments I looked into, but I could not make up my mind.
Most online courses that seemed worthwhile were from the US, with prices ranging between US$5.000 and US$6.000. These values were out of my budget, especially because I wasn’t sure if I would be happy with the content. Besides, I wasn’t sure about the international validity of these courses and how they are regulated.
As I persisted with my search, I stumbled upon edx.org, an online platform offering courses from top Universities worldwide. I had landad on online university heaven!
EdX is a partnership between Harvard University and MIT to enable people from anywhere in the world to have access to courses from prestigious universities. The best part is that the courses are free! Well, that’s not totally correct! There is a free version and a paid version. You can learn more about how edX works in this post I wrote about edX.org.
I quickly found the nutrition and health courses that interested me. They were all offered by WagegingenX, the online sector of Wageningen University & Research, a top Dutch university in the field of scientific research on nutrition.
Initially, I went crazy with so many courses. I wanted to take a lot more than I could handle! Eventually, I had to be pragmatic and make decisions.
The selection was quite obvious considering the sequence of the nutrition courses.
I finally narrowed down my selection to six courses, which was still an overload. I knew I was up for a challenge considering my background is in management and marketing, not biology and chemistry!
A couple of weeks later I was “back to school”!
This time there was no orientation week, campus life or sitting in class. Just my Mac and I.
3 – Which certified nutrition and health courses I chose
I opted for the paid version because it provides deeper knowledge of each subject, as well as a certification upon successful completion.
Here is a list of the courses I took and respective certifications and links to the full description of the course, in case you are interested.
Final Thoughts
How can we make sense out of so much, often conflicting, information about food, nutrition and health?
Is what we read coming from reliable sources?
What about the miraculous claims about certain foods?
The food industry is not a totally reliable source of information either as they are often behind scientific research. Not to mention that when the press gets a hold of information about scientific research they are most interested in headlines that sell.
Given this scenario, where should we look for reliable information?
After taking the above nutrition and health courses, not only did I learn about nutrition, but also how to critically look at the elevant available information. My next post will be exactly about trusworthy health and nutrition resources.
If you are interested in any of the courses above, you can read more information here.
As for me, I will be publishing reliable and practical information about food, nutrition and health, based on solid evidence.
But that’s not all! I will also create and share nutritiously balanced vegan recipes to inspire you.
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions related to the courses I took or any nutrition related question?
I will do my best to answer or direct you to a reliable source of information.
To healthy choices and happy living!
Luciana
