Learn nutrition
Whether you're serious about wanting to eat healthier or thinking of pursuing a career in nutrition, edX can help you reach your goals with expert-led nutrition courses, certificate programs, and degree programs.
Curious about how food fuels your body and shapes your health? Learn the fundamentals of nutrition through expert-led courses that explore diet, metabolism, and wellness from a scientific perspective.
Whether you're pursuing a career in health or simply want to make smarter food choices, discover how nutrition can transform your life.
Why learning nutrition matters
Understanding nutrition is essential to living a healthier, more intentional life. Learning how nutrients, diet, and lifestyle choices affect your energy, mood, and long-term health can empower you to make informed decisions every day.
Nutrition knowledge offers lifelong benefits, from preventing disease to improving athletic performance and overall well-being. By studying nutrition, you can gain the tools necessary to create balanced meals, understand food labels, and contribute to a healthier world.
- Deepen your understanding of how food systems affect sustainability and global health.
- Promote better physical and mental health through informed food choices.
- Prepare yourself to evaluate and translate complex nutrition research into practical advice.
- Build a strong scientific foundation in human biology, metabolism, and dietetics.
- Improve your energy, sleep, and focus with a balanced diet.
Browse online Nutrition Certificates
Find new interests and advance your career opportunities
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Use the knowledge and skills you have gained to drive impact at work and grow your career.
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Certificates
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What can you learn from nutrition classes?
Nutrition classes teach you how food affects the body, from digestion and metabolism to disease prevention and overall wellness. You'll explore the science behind healthy eating patterns and gain the skills necessary to analyze dietary needs at the individual and population levels.
These courses combine biological science, behavioral insight, and practical application to prepare you to make informed, evidence-based choices in nutrition and health. Common topics and courses include:
- Human anatomy, physiology, and metabolism
- Macronutrients and micronutrients
- Nutrition across the lifespan
- Food science and safety
- Public health and community nutrition
- Behavioral nutrition and counseling techniques
How to get started in nutrition
Getting started in nutrition depends on your background and goals. Whether you're new to the health sciences or trying to advance existing expertise, you can find a course that matches your learning goals.
Beginner: Food, Nutrition, and Health
This professional certificate program from WageningenX begins with the basics and gradually introduces more advanced concepts. You'll explore how food influences health, metabolism, and disease risk, building foundational knowledge without assuming prior expertise.
Explore Food, Nutrition, and HealthBeginner: Food, Nutrition, and Health
This professional certificate program from WageningenX begins with the basics and gradually introduces more advanced concepts. You'll explore how food influences health, metabolism, and disease risk, building foundational knowledge without assuming prior expertise.
Explore Food, Nutrition, and HealthHow long does it take to learn nutrition?
You can learn the fundamentals of nutrition — including macronutrients, micronutrients, food labels, and healthy eating patterns — in a few weeks to months. If you want to learn how to apply this knowledge to specific populations, such as children, athletes, and individuals with health conditions, this could take a year or more.
To become a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), you generally must earn a master's degree and complete a supervised clinical internship to be considered for registration. This process typically takes at least two years, assuming you already have a bachelor's degree in a related field.
How long it takes you to learn nutrition depends on your experience and goals. Learning nutrition through edX can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years, depending on the type of program you choose.
| Program type | Time to complete |
|---|---|
| Courses | Can be completed in as few as three weeks |
| Certificates | Can be completed in as few as 14 weeks |
| Executive education | Can be completed in as few as two weeks |
| Degree programs | Can be completed in as few as two years |
Learning timeline for building better nutrition habits
Up to three weeks: The first step toward better nutrition habits is education. You can learn about the subject via a course or educational app. Spend your first few weeks learning about what makes foods healthy, unhealthy, or somewhere in between.
3-16 weeks: Once you've learned the basics of nutrition, you can start gradually applying what you've learned. At this stage, you'll want to pay attention to what you eat by keeping a food journal and tracking your macronutrients.
More than sixteen weeks: After you've become familiar with your eating patterns, identify what you might want to change, if anything. Your goal might be to replace a less healthy food you often eat with one that tastes similar but offers more nutritional benefits, to eat fast food less often, to build a certain amount of muscle, or to simply feel healthier. Your goal should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This can set you up for success in achieving your goal.
Jobs in nutrition
There are plenty of unique jobs you can qualify for with an education in nutrition. Some of these roles may directly relate to the field of nutrition, while others are more general. For example, the following roles require an education specifically in nutrition:
- Registered dietitian
- Clinical nutritionist
- Nutrition researcher
- Food scientist
- Nutrition writer
- Nutritional therapist
Chefs, caterers, personal trainers, health services managers, and health coaches can benefit from a background in nutrition. Many of these jobs involve one-on-one interaction with individuals seeking to better their health and wellness through dietary adjustments. Depending on your nutrition career path, you may also conduct research or teach others about nutrition.
If you want to qualify for additional job opportunities, you can earn a master's degree in nutrition, nutrition education, public health nutrition, or sustainable food systems.
Below, find jobs that you may qualify for by learning nutrition, including salary and job outlook data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Dietitian
Dietitians work with individuals to create personalized nutrition plans that improve health, enhance performance, and address specific health concerns. Dietitians can work in hospitals, clients' homes, gyms, clinics, or government agencies.
- Required education: Master's degree
- Median annual salary (May 2024): $73,850
- Projected job growth (2024-34): +6%
Dietitian
Dietitians work with individuals to create personalized nutrition plans that improve health, enhance performance, and address specific health concerns. Dietitians can work in hospitals, clients' homes, gyms, clinics, or government agencies.
- Required education: Master's degree
- Median annual salary (May 2024): $73,850
- Projected job growth (2024-34): +6%
Learn nutrition online with edX
Whether you want to learn more about nutrition to make healthier choices or want to pursue a career in the field, edX makes it easy to start learning at your own pace. Enroll in a course, and join a global community of learners building healthier futures through science-based education.
- Take a flexible self-paced class, learning the science of food, health, and wellbeing directly from a leading university.
- Earn a credential in nutrition to build professional credibility.
- Advance your career with an executive education program focused on research-driven training.