--- title: Nutrition description: This topic covers the essential principles of human nutrition and how the body processes food. Learners will understand macronutrients, micronutrients, dietary guidelines, energy balance, and how nutritional choices impact overall physiological health and wellness. category: health-medicine subcategory: nutrition difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/nutrition-fundamentals --- # Nutrition This topic covers the essential principles of human nutrition and how the body processes food. Learners will understand macronutrients, micronutrients, dietary guidelines, energy balance, and how nutritional choices impact overall physiological health and wellness. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 2 Courses • 6 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Nutrition.gov A US Department of Agriculture portal linking to federal guidance on dietary guidelines, food labels, MyPlate, weight management, and life-stage nutrition. Use it to find the government's current official position and locate primary sources behind common dietary advice. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.nutrition.gov/ **Tags:** nutrition, dietary-guidelines, public-health, usda, reference ### 2. MyPlate.gov The USDA's official dietary guidance site, with food-group targets by age and activity level, printable plans, recipes, and a quiz that generates a personal daily plan. Useful for translating the Dietary Guidelines into concrete portions. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.myplate.gov **Tags:** nutrition, dietary-guidelines, usda, meal-planning, healthy-eating ### 3. Harvard T.H. Chan Nutrition Source Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's evidence-review site on macronutrients, vitamins, specific foods, and popular diets. Each page cites the underlying research, so you can compare mainstream nutrition claims against the studies supporting or undercutting them. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/ **Tags:** nutrition, public-health, evidence-based, diet, harvard ### 4. Examine.com Independent research database that summarises the scientific evidence on dietary supplements, nutrients and diets, rating effects by outcome and study quality. Readers can check what trials actually show about a supplement's benefits, dosage and safety before acting on nutrition claims. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://examine.com/ **Tags:** supplements, nutrition-science, evidence-based-nutrition, research-summaries ### 5. nutrition.org Nutrition.org is an educational resource that explains nutrition fundamentals, with accessible explanations of macronutrients and micronutrients, dietary guidelines, and key nutrition concepts. It provides evidence-based articles and learning materials for students and anyone seeking foundational knowledge in nutrition. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://nutrition.org **Tags:** websites, health-medicine, nutrition ### 6. eatright.org EatRight.org is the consumer site of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, offering evidence-based nutrition guidance, healthy eating tips, meal planning ideas, and resources to locate a registered dietitian. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://eatright.org **Tags:** websites, health-medicine, health-and-wellness ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Food and Health Around the world, we find ourselves facing global epidemics of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and other predominantly diet-related diseases. To address these public health crises, we urgently need to explore innovative strategies for promoting healthful eating. There is strong evidence that global increases in the consumption of heavily processed foods, coupled with cultural shifts away from the preparation of food in the home, have contributed to high rates of preventable, chronic disease. In this course, learners will be given the information and practical skills they need to begin optimizing the way they eat. This course will shift the focus away from reductionist discussions about nutrients and move, instead, towards practical discussions about real food and the environment in which we consume it. By the end of this course, learners should have the tools they need to distinguish between foods that will support their health and those that threaten it. In addition, we will present a compelling rationale for a return to simple home cooking, an integral part of our efforts to live longer, healthier lives. View the trailer for the course here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7x1aaZ03xU **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/food-and-health **Tags:** nutrition, healthy-eating, home-cooking, processed-food, public-health ### 2. The Science of Well-Being **Author:** Laurie Santos Yale course taught by Laurie Santos on the psychology of happiness, covering common misconceptions about what makes people happy, cognitive biases behind them, and evidence-based practices such as gratitude, savoring and exercise. Learners complete weekly rewirement exercises and build one sustained wellness habit. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being **Tags:** positive-psychology, happiness, well-being, habit-formation, behavior-change ## Podcasts ### 1. FoundMyFitness **Author:** Rhonda Patrick Long-form interviews and solo episodes from biomedical scientist Rhonda Patrick, covering nutrition, micronutrients, sauna and cold exposure, exercise, and aging. Episodes work through the underlying studies, so you can judge the evidence behind common health claims. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en-us | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.foundmyfitness.com/ **Tags:** nutrition-science, longevity, exercise-physiology, micronutrients, health-research ## Books ### 1. Understanding Nutrition **Author:** Eleanor Noss Whitney, Sharon Rady Rolfes The standard introductory college textbook on human nutrition: macronutrients, vitamins and minerals, digestion, energy balance, and nutrition across the lifespan. It gives you the physiological reasoning behind dietary recommendations rather than lists of foods to eat. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1305396456?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, health-medicine, nutrition ### 2. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease **Author:** A. Catharine Ross, Benjamin Caballero, Robert J. Cousins, Katherine L. Tucker, Thomas R. Ziegler The standard graduate-level reference in nutrition science, with chapters by specialists on nutrient biochemistry, requirements across the life cycle, and diet's role in specific diseases. Used to look up mechanisms and clinical evidence rather than read straight through. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1605474614?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, health-medicine, nutrition ### 3. Food Rules **Author:** Michael Pollan Sixty-four short rules for choosing what to eat, each a sentence or two with a brief rationale, organized around Pollan's summary advice: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Gives readers a practical heuristic rather than nutritional theory. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0141048689?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, health-medicine, health-and-wellness --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/nutrition-fundamentals