Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes

I seldom give a 5-star rating to any course because I always believe that the course could have put an extra effort into the content, structure, layout, course assessments, and the learner support platform. The course on Nutrition, Heart Disease, and Diabetes checks all these boxes for me.

The strongest attribute of this course is undoubtedly its content. At first, the amount of information provided may seem overwhelming but the course gradually breaks down each topic from its tiny bits until all the details come together for a more comprehensive and meaningful picture. It explains that diseases like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and chronic kidney disease are part of a single cluster of diseases termed 'Cardiometabolic disease' and that each of these component diseases has an inter-related pathophysiological pathway. The discussion on each macronutrient and the evidence-based dietary guidelines provided through this course have certainly enhanced my knowledge. It also gives an overview of the genetics involved in chronic, complex diseases and how genetic research has contributed to our understanding of the biological processes that potentiate the onset of disease if a conducive environment is also present.

Some topics might be too technical for laypersons, but anyone with some high school knowledge on nutrition and non-communicable diseases may find this course enjoyable and very informative. It may also serve as a good 'primer' knowledge for medical doctors who have not been trained enough in the field of nutrition and disease. Besides the use of some technical terms, the less meaningful information given on several dietary trials, and the lack of a practical dietary guideline that can be applied immediately in clinical practice, the course still manages to deliver valuable and convincing content that empowers anyone to take their health more seriously.

From the title of the course, it appears that this course should be focusing on nutritional therapy for cardiometabolic diseases. However, the course didn't really focus on that and largely focused on the pathophysiology, genetics and epigenetics. Indeed, these areas are very important in the management of cardiometabolic diseases, however, the title of this course should be Nutrigenomics of Cardiometabolic diseases rather than Nutrition, Heart and Diabetes.

Nutritional therapy was discussed as an overview in the course. One video combined many eating patterns and discussed them in quick sentences. For instance, low carb diet (ketogenic diet) has been mentioned as nutritional therapy for T2DM in the ADA T2DM Nutrition guidelines, why it was not discussed sufficiently in this course? Another example, there are many research evidences on the role of intermittent fasting and low-calorie diet as nutritional therapy for obesity, why this was not discussed? Studies on plant-based diet was not really discussed enough. A course with the title of Nutrition, Heart and Diabetes should have discussed all of these dietary approaches in details.

If you are interested in the research area of Nutrigenomics, I advise you to take this course.

Hello All.

This course has definitely exposed me to the; history, current events and the potential future of nutrition. Especially in relation to non-communicable diseases.

Already, nutrition can be a complex and highly polarizing area of study. I really appreciated the fact that the facilitators were open and honest about this.

A lot of information was presented and it also forced me to try and scrutinize some of the "expert opinions" that most people just accept, when it comes to nutrition.

Also, some of the assignments that involve you doing your own research, helped demystify a lot of unwarranted fears surrounding academia.

The assignments also invariably exposes one to information that piques the curiosity (e.g, why were cigarettes part of the K-rations that were formulated by Ancel Keys, to be given to paratroopers during World War 2?!).

Having followed the certified track, i got the impression, that the facilitators really wanted the important concepts to be grasped. In line with that, the following were of immense help:

- videos of interviews with experienced and seasoned researchers

- repeatedly asking follow-up questions after introduction of new topics

- links to resources for further reading; ongoing research projects, already published research articles, WHO & FAO bulletins etc.

Overall, it has been quite an impressively didactic course which has helped me learn more than I thought I would.

Much appreciation to the staff who put this course together.

I like it. It's very scientific based on the fact and research presented in an attractive way. Topics are diverse but relevant to the course objective. I encouraged others to take this course. I gained much knowledge and deep understanding of the nutrition in disease prevention. I enjoyed the videos and the reading explanation. We can see that organizers and lectures had exerted much effort. Appreciated the detail explanation and the science behind the facts.

Just one suggestion I would like to make is to reduce the research portions about the Gene study. It's rather complicated at the molecular level which is good for knowledge but tiresome to take exercise tests on this topic. Ungraded tests are fine because you can attempt several times and give you insights. Graded test could pay more focus on the practical tips and advice that people can follow and benefits.

Ultimately we aim to serve the public and patients with nutrition guidelines, tailored plans and recommendation that would benefit them.

All the best and thanks for the excellent work.

The Pros:
This course does not take the typical mainstream approach to nutrition and effects. It is quite updated and quotes a few great researchers.

The epigenetic part of the fourth module and gut microbiome are also great since they are up to date.

Th cons:
Even though some old dogmas are challenged a bit, there is still a lot of resistance to knew findings for EBM. Ketogenic diets are mentioned (a little) and their effect on weight loss, it seems there is still hesitation when going against old obsolete dogmas such as low salt intake and the 7 country study (which really has 22 countries and is skewed). The LDL generalization (as bad) in segments but categorization (some are bad but not all) in others is not consitent. Same goes for saturated fats and the generalization. The nona non-linear relationship between mortality and blood pressure is also of vast importance but I only see the contrary here.

Overall it is very much worth the time, above average knowledge and interactive as well.

The information given is certainly interesting and goes very much into depth. For myself, I had hoped to find out more about what role vitamins, minerals and other supplements play and whether or not we should integrate them into our diet.

Personally, I found module 4 too hard and too much going into detail. I am not interested in that particular topic of (epi-)genetics and all sorts of trials that can be done. I prefer more hands-on information about different foods. I would have liked to see more concrete advise about nutritional guidelines. Instead, I found a lot of theory about (epi-) genetics, which is certainly an important part of nutrition, however again, it was for me too theoretical and I cannot translate that into my daily life. I would like to give advice and be able to explain why certain foods are not good for you and what they can cause in the body.

During this course, I found some information, but because it often went very theoretical, I lost at times interest and the connection.

Right now, I'm not sure of what I have learned, what I will remember and what I will be able to translate into my and others daily life.

Still, it made it clear to me that the topic nutrition, heart disease and diabetes is far more complex than expected and I thank you for your work and research in finding out the best way in preventing and healing illness.

Love how this course hits and elaborates on all the relevant aspects of Cardiometabolic health. Really extracted some new previously unknown info regarding the aspects and mechanismes of CMD. also some practical applyable information, which i really appriciate as i am a dietician. The course is takes a very broad approach and touches all subject, which is very informative. But did give me an overload of information regarding some subjects. and other subject i would have liked to go into with more detail. ( i can research these on my own ofcourse)

The (test) questions are great because they let you focus on the most important aspects and show you what you need to rewatch / re-read. (printable summaries with images would be a great addition in my mind).

I can honestly say my knowledge has significatly deepend and this course wil make me a better healthcare practitioner.

Thank you Wageningen University

My objective for taking this course, as a functional health researcher, was to broaden my knowledge in the area of cardiometabolic diseases, as well as to learn about potential non-pharmacological solutions and cures.

The course covers a broad topic of heart disease and diabetes from several aspects, and in a relatively compressed fashion. It lays a solid foundation of knowledge, for further research, advanced courses, or deep dives into the topic for those who are eager to pursue that.

Even though I had read and reviewed many books and research papers on the topic, I still managed to learn some new and interesting things from this course, adding to my knowledge base.

Thus, I would surely recommend this course to anyone interested in the topics of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and/or health promoting dietary approaches.

Being in the field of Healthy Food Catering industry, I wanted to have more knowledge and inputs about the most recent research in the Cardiometabolic diseases, diabetes.

I found these courses very well done! Very well explained with a responsive team behind and very knowledgeable lecturers/ teachers.

I have decided after being a verified learner from these courses, to extend my knowledge and to complete the entire training with the Cancer Modules.

I will definitely recommend these courses, from this excellent Wageningen University (ranked Nbr. 1 in the Netherlands - as per the lasted surveys) and that offers high quality teaching, complete programs, and at an affordable price.

Well done team and thank you very much for all your great materials/work!

Sabrina Marie

I naturally have a stronger passion for nutrition, fruits vergitables and plants base treatment and therefore, the love for this course. I have already recommended this course to some of my close friends and encourage them to follow suite if they wish to know more about what to eat and what not healthy for their adult life.
The advantage aspect of it is, after my normal duty, I just have to have a little time to open up to listing to this audio-video nutritional programme and read all the transcripts.
I think, question page column is needed for learners to pose their questions that is bothering.
In short, it is very encouraging course depending on the will and ability to focus your mind and as well programm yourself to achieve your goal.
In all, it helps a lot

First of all, I would like to thank the whole orgainising committee. This course is incredible. Personally it has given me a greater insight into understanding cardiometabolic diseases. The organisation of data from the beginning, with the test questions really aids understanding. The most interesting one to me was the Omics topic, this is was one thing I didn't pay attention to, but indeed I did appreciate it too. The discussion are tremendously interesting..

On the other hand, the part of assignments was a bit challenging, especially moving from app to another and personally failed to access some assignments that were not on this platform and needed other apps. Tried to seek for help of how to access them and submit some of the assignments but no response.

But generally the course is strategically organized, with lectures having detailed information on the various topics, the interviews from the professors I really did enjoy the course and hopefully I will reach my goal of being a great health nutritionist and health promoter not forgetting the fight of reducing the prevalence of cardiometabolic disease.

Thank you

Some parts of this topic like effect of beverages,salts and dietery approaches,introduction to diabetes,measuring insulin resistance,role of adipose tissues in our cardiometabolic health and various interviews were explained pretty well. I also got to know a lot about mediterranean diet and above all i was surprised to know that fish has adverse as well as harmful effects too because till now i only believed that it is good for our health.
What i disliked about this course was some of the genetical part like genomic wide association studies(gwas) and epigenomic wide association studies(ewas) somehow lacked some information or i felt that it was not required in this course.
Concluding this all i would like to say i liked this course and it helped me lot in coming across new things which is much much needed in our daily lives.