What is the recommended percentage of calories from carbohydrates in a healthy diet?

Dietary guidelines generally recommend that carbohydrates provide 45% to 65% of total daily calories.

What is emulsification in fat digestion?

Emulsification is the process in which bile breaks large fat droplets into smaller droplets, helping digestive enzymes digest fat in the small intestine.

What is a healthy weekly rate of weight loss?

A gradual loss of about 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) per week is commonly considered a healthy, sustainable rate.

Free online course Nutrition Course

Duration of the online course: 14 hours and 8 minutes

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Build real nutrition skills with this free online course—macros, digestion, vitamins and weight management—plus practice questions and a certificate option.

In this free course, learn about

Nutrition Foundations and Digestion
Macronutrients and Metabolism
Energy Balance and Weight Management
Vitamins, Water, and Minerals
Nutrition Across the Life Cycle and Fitness
Disease Prevention, Food Safety, and Clinical Nutrition

About the free online course

Making confident food choices can feel overwhelming when advice changes every week. This free online nutrition course helps you replace confusion with practical understanding so you can build eating habits that support energy, performance, and healthy weight goals. You will learn how to evaluate common claims, connect what you eat to what your body does with it, and make informed decisions that fit real life rather than short-term rules.

Start with the foundations of a healthy diet and the logic behind dietary recommendations. From there, explore how the body digests and absorbs nutrients and why that process matters for everything from satiety to blood sugar management. You will develop a clear understanding of carbohydrates, lipids, and protein, including how each macronutrient contributes to health, how different types of dietary fat impact heart disease risk, and what makes amino acids unique.

As you move into metabolism and energy balance, you will connect the science to everyday outcomes like body composition and sustainable weight management. You will learn to think in terms of energy density, realistic weight-loss pace, and how nutrition supports physical activity, including which nutrients are used for quick energy when you start moving. The course also strengthens your micronutrient literacy with an approachable look at water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins, major and trace minerals, hydration, and key roles these nutrients play in the body.

Nutrition needs change across life stages, and this course guides you through considerations for pregnancy, lactation, infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and older age. You will also examine how diet links with disease prevention, basic immune responses, food safety concerns such as the bacterial danger zone, and situations where nutritional support or IV therapy may be required. Throughout the learning experience, short exercises help you check your understanding and turn concepts into usable knowledge, making it easier to apply what you learn to yourself, your family, or your professional growth.

Course content

Video class: Nutrition Overview (Chapter 1) 57m
Exercise: What is the acceptable range of macronutrient distribution for calories coming from carbohydrates in a healthy diet according to dietary recommendations?
Video class: Planning a Healthy Diet (Chapter 2) 34m
Exercise: What principle of a healthy diet emphasizes consuming everything in moderation to avoid eliminating food groups?
Video class: Digestion, Absorption 55m
Exercise: Which of the following terms describes the process that allows a hydrophobic and hydrophilic substance to mix and is essential for fat digestion in the small intestine?

Video class: The Carbohydrates (Chapter 4) 53m
Exercise: What is the main enzyme responsible for breaking down carbohydrates in the small intestine?
Video class: The Lipids (Chapter 5) 1h05m
Exercise: Which type of fat increases LDL cholesterol ('bad cholesterol') while decreasing HDL cholesterol ('good cholesterol'), thus increasing the risk of heart disease?
Video class: Protein (Chapter 6) 45m
Exercise: Which of the following components is unique to the structure of amino acids compared to other macronutrient building blocks like carbohydrates and fats?
Video class: Metabolism (Chapter 7) 1h12m
Exercise: Which of the following terms describes a reaction where structures are broken down into smaller pieces and energy is released?

Video class: Energy Balance and Body Composition (Chapter 8) 24m
Exercise: What is energy density and how can it affect weight management?
Video class: Weight Management (Chapter 9) 20m
Exercise: What is a healthy rate of weight loss per week?

Video class: The Water Soluble Vitamins (Chapter 10) 57m
Exercise: Which of the following statements is true about water-soluble vitamins?
Video class: Fat-Soluble Vitamins (Chapter 11) 26m
Exercise: Which of the active forms of vitamin A is derived from splitting beta-carotene?
Video class: Water and the Major Minerals (Chapter 12) 55m
Exercise: Which statement is correct regarding the role of potassium in the body?
Video class: Trace Minerals (Chapter 13) 34m
Exercise: What is the role of transferrin in the body?

Video class: Fitness 1h01m
Exercise: Which of the following nutrients is primarily used as the quick source of energy immediately after starting physical activity?
Video class: Pregnancy and Lactation (Chapter 15) 54m
Exercise: Which of the following additional calories intake is needed during lactation?
Video class: Infants, Childhood, and Adolescence (Chapter 16) 42m
Exercise: Why is it important to include fat in the diet of infants during their first year of life?
Video class: Adulthood and Later Years (Chapter 17) 28m
Exercise: Which strategy is NOT part of the recommended approaches to support the nutrition and health of the elderly?

Video class: Diet and Health / Disease Prevention (Chapter 18) 18m
Exercise: Which process is described as the engulfing of a foreign body to break it down in the immune response?
Video class: Consumer Concerns about Food and Water (Chapter 19) 17m
Exercise: Which temperature range represents the 'danger zone' where foodborne bacteria can rapidly develop, and food is considered unsafe if left within this range for more than an hour or two?
Video class: Chapter 20 - Nutritional Support/IV Therapy 24m
Exercise: Which of the following is NOT a common reason for requiring nutritional support?