Healthy and Sustainable Foods

Overview

This course focuses on healthy and sustainable foods. After reviewing the crucial role of food for both health and the environment, we first look at the carbon footprint and environmental impacts of multiple ingredients and more complex foods. We also detail a health-based approach to quantify the impact of 5000+ individual foods on health, expressed in minutes of life lost and gain per serving. We then analyze trade-offs and targeted changes that can bring substantial health and environmental benefits with less than 10% caloric change. We finally address the health and sustainable performances of various diets, looking at disparities between gender, races and diets.

Syllabus

Introduction to Healthy and Sustainable Foods

Welcome! This module will introduce you to our course. The introductory lesson will provide an overview of the topics we will explore and outline the expectations and procedures. You will be introduced to utilizing spreadsheets as a tool for evaluating different types of foods. The module will conclude by introducing methods that can be used to measure the environmental impact of various food choices.

Nutritional Evaluations and Diet Choices

This module focuses on evaluating the nutritional impact of food on individuals' health and how a combination of multiple evaluations can help us make changes to our diet that will result in positive impacts. You will be introduced to Dietary Risk Factors (DRF) and the Health Nutritional Index (HENI) as usable measurements. We will then move on to discuss the various trade-offs that one should consider when prioritizing a given measurement to inform their food choices. We conclude this module by thinking through how to make targeted changes to our diet to result in better nutritional and environmental outcomes.

Analyzing Complex Dishes and Comparing Diets

This final module examines the dietary impacts of multiple foods to then analyze trade-offs and targeted changes that can bring substantial health and environmental benefits with less than 10% caloric change. Then, you will utilize the calculations skills you've practiced to complete the End-of-Course Assessment. This assessment will be similar to the previous end-of-week quizzes, but it will instead cover concepts from the entire course rather than just one week. Lastly, we ask you to reflect on how your meal choices have changed since you began the course. If you elect to do so, you will revisit our initial meal sharing Gallery exercise to share your most recent meal as you complete our course!