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 useful and interesting approach of the psychology and biology of obesity! Thanks a lot!
Updated introduction and understanding of this popular topic in health. Worth to take time to learn not only for health promoter but those want to help friends and family members on this.
This course explained how the physiological, psychological, and the environment play apart of being overweight and obese and how the brain's reward system is the key on why people gained the weight. Obesity is more than just overeating. It's the science behind. Overeating can be caused the brain's reward system or stress or how portion sizes differ greatly from place to place or even from when a person was in their mother's utero. This is a course that goes into great detail to understand what obesity really is and why it is becoming an epidemic problem worldwide. This is a great class for anyone who wants to learn more about and even want to be able to help fix this global issue.
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GM
Excelente curso, información muy interesante.