The Healthy Sustainable Diets MOOC (17th June - 21st July, 2013)
Please Note: Registrations for this MOOC have now closed.
If you would like to join a waiting list to be notified if this MOOC is delivered again, please join the waiting list using the link below.
This course introduces you to sustainable diets as a concept (what might a sustainable diet look like, what does it not look like?) and then takes you through some of the challenges involved in choosing food which is both healthy and sustainable:
- Identifies key changes required to make our diets healthier and sustainable
- Considers some of the current dilemmas around eating a healthy and sustainable diet
- Examines the role of current sustainability labelling, and explores options for a multi health and sustainability label
- Discusses the possibilities of policy options to enable citizens to make the required shift from unhealthy and unsustainable consumption patterns
Besides University of Sheffield academic staff, guest contributors who have expertise in this area will be joining in, and it is anticipated that the course will provide a lively forum for learning, engaging and debating the complexities of sustainable diets.
MOOC tutors
My research interests lie in exploring dietary choices, particularly those taken with health, environmental, ethical, or sustainable motivations in mind. Tensions exist currently between food based dietary guidelines, and environmental capabilities, for example in the case of fish. There is a pressing need to revise current dietary recommendations to incorporate sustainability criteria, and I am very keen to explore how this might be done to enable clearer choices for consumers when purchasing food.
.jpg){kind=link}
I have significant research experience which has involved working in different cultural contexts (especially the UK, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and more recently in Asia), falling broadly within three areas of public health nutrition: Nutrition transition in low and middle-income countries, obesity policy development and integrating sustainability into nutrition policy.
Course Dates
| Week | Duration |
| Week 0 (Induction week) | 17th June - 23rd June |
| Week 1 | 24th June - 30th June |
| Week 2 | 1st July - 7th July |
| Week 3 | 8th July - 14th July |
| Week 4 | 15th July - 21st July |
We anticipate that participants on this MOOC should plan for approximately 20 hours of study time over the 5 week period (roughly 4 hours per week).