About this course: In this course, we’ll look at the facts and misconceptions around obesity and discuss key physiological and psychological concepts around the brain’s control of appetite and body weight. We’ll consider the biological and environmental pressures that make it easy to gain weight (and hard to lose it!). Most importantly, we'll give you the opportunity to reflect on your own knowledge and assumptions around the subject. We deliver course materials as a mixture of videos, audio-only MOOCcasts, and a selection of short readings. There are short weekly quizzes, a peer-reviewed exercise, and discussion activities on the forum. These will help you prepare for the final project. In it, you are invited to demonstrate your evidence-informed understanding and express how you'll develop it beyond the course. The course features Citizen Science projects. We'll collect data from you (anonymously, of course) and use it to drive participant-led discussions of controversial ideas. In this way, we hope to explore ideas around diet and obesity. These projects also give a taste of how scientific evidence is collected and interpreted by scientists, and give some indication how much there still is to discover and understand.
Who is this class for: This course is for anyone who is interested in the complexities of appetite and obesity.
Taught by: Dr John Menzies
University of Edinburgh
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 1-2 hours per week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Reading: About the course
- Video: Rules of engagement
- Video: Why is obesity a problem?
- Video: What do we know about appetite and obesity? Part 1
- Video: What do we know about appetite and obesity? Part 2
- Reading: MOOCcast 1.1: The Scientific Method
- Reading: MOOCcast 1.2: Science, evidence and the media
- Video: The physiology of appetite
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.1: Is food an addictive substance?
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.2: Is eating a behavioural addiction?
- Video: Early-life experience
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.3: Stress, eating and dieting
- Peer Review: Reflecting on Barriers to Healthier Eating
- Video: The psychology of appetite
- Reading: MOOCcast 3.1: Portion size and meal size
- Video: Economic approaches to obesity
- Reading: MOOCcast 3.2: Food insecurity
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Really interesting course. It explains the complexity of obesity and proposes some ways to treat the problem.
this is very good course, helped me think about well being not just health. hope to see more courses from the Mr Menzies. thanks!
This course really helped me to understand obesity. It showed me why obesity is such a problem in our modern world. It made me think about how I can help people to eat healthily.
Thanks, Coursera, for this great course!
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Very well addressed from different aspects. Helped forming a solid foundation to address the obesity problem as well as to make good food choices with portion control.