Learn how to fuel your body, maintain your emotional and physical health, and find your way around the grocery store and kitchen in Nutrition and Wellness. This course prepares you for a healthy life and provides you with the essential skills you need to plan and make healthy and delicious meals for you, your family, and your friends. You’ll learn how to budget for your meals, shop for groceries, and fit cooking into a busy schedule of school, work, and other responsibilities.
Unit 1: Understanding Your Nutritional Needs
Food is fuel for your body, and you need to pick the right kind of fuel for your body to run its best. In this unit, you will learn how to calculate your nutritional needs, including calories and how many servings you need of different types of foods. You’ll have the opportunity to think about what you eat and what you should eat to feel your best. You’ll also learn a little about physical activity. Physical activity forms a key component of overall wellness and is an essential addition to a lifelong plan to be strong, fit, and healthy. With a smart plan for nutrition and wellness, you won’t be running on empty.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 2: The Science of Nutrition & Wellness
There are many different ideas about nutrition and wellness. How do you know what’s right? It’s all about the science of nutrition and wellness. In this unit, you will learn how scientists study nutrition and wellness, and why it matters to you. You’ll learn about the health issues connected to nutrition and wellness, and what we know about improving health through nutrition and physical activity. And you’ll learn about the body mass index, metabolic rates, and how you can use technology to make smarter nutritional choices. This information will make you better able to make good choices for yourself, whether you’re in gym class, the cafeteria line, or sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 3: The Eight Dimensions of Wellness
Happy, content, fulfilled. These words are all used to describe an overall sense of well-being, or wellness, throughout your life. In this unit, you will learn about the aspects of wellness. Wellness isn’t confined to good nutrition and exercise. It includes how you feel, how you relate to other people, whom you interact with, where you work, and much more. Each aspect of wellness is important for you to live a happy and fulfilling life. Wellness can be divided into eight separate areas, or dimensions. You’ll learn what each of these dimensions is and how you can change your behavior to improve that dimension of wellness.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 4: Savvy Shopping & Meal Planning
Look down the aisles of your grocery store. How do you know what to buy? How do you know if you’re getting a good value for your money when you shop? In this unit, you’ll learn about budgeting for food, shopping strategies, and meal planning. With these skills, you can keep your spending down and eat healthy and delicious meals. You’ll also reduce food waste and save yourself time and energy!
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 5: Staying Smart & Safe in the Kitchen
The kitchen is home to more potential dangers than any other room of your house. Cuts, falls, food poisoning—the kitchen can create all sorts of problems if you’re not careful. Learning how to manage and prevent those dangers is an essential part of becoming a good and safe cook to feed yourself and others. In this unit, you’ll learn how to keep your kitchen clean and free of pests, how to handle a knife safely, and how to store and cook food to prevent food-borne illnesses.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 6: Preparing Fruits & Vegetables
Vegetables and fruits should make up a large portion of your diet, but many people overlook these delicious and healthy foods. Filling your plate with nutrient-rich and high-fiber fruits and vegetables keeps you healthy, fuels your body, and helps you to maintain a healthy weight. Learning how to prepare and cook these foods can keep you healthy as well, enable you to experiment in the kitchen, and allow you to begin to develop cooking confidence. Get over your fears of Brussels sprouts and papaya. Tackle the tomatoes. And embrace the eggplant!
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 7: Cooking with Dairy & Eggs
It’s time to embrace new foods and new cooking techniques as you master dairy and egg cooking. This isn’t all about milkshakes and ice cream—it’s also delicate scrambled eggs and healthy, creamy yogurt. In this unit, you’ll learn about dairy products and eggs, and you’ll be ready to start cooking with these foods in your own kitchen. Though most of what you’ll learn is healthy, you’ll also learn how to make some treats, including homemade ice cream!
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 8: Cooking with Meats, Poultry, Fish, Beans, & Nuts
What’s on your BBQ tonight? You’ve tackled fruits and vegetables, dairy and eggs—now, it’s time to handle meats, poultry, fish, and vegetarian protein sources, such as beans and nuts. In this unit, you’ll learn how to cook these foods to use in a variety of ways, and how to make the most of cheaper foods, such as dry beans or inexpensive cuts of meat. Simple cooking formulas will get you started, and your own creativity will let you make an assortment of delicious dishes.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 9: Grains, Breads & Baking
From the bread for your PB&J to the rice with your General Tso’s chicken, grains make up a significant part of nearly every diet, whether it’s a healthy one or not. For a healthy diet, choose whole grains rather than refined ones. Eating a diet rich in whole grains keeps you healthier, but it does require you knowing how to cook those grains. In this unit, you’ll learn how to cook different grains and learn a little bit about baking as well.
What will you learn in this unit?
Unit 10: Mastering Moderation: Creating a Smart Strategy for Healthful Eating
Maintaining good health throughout your life takes work, but you’re already on your way. You’ve learned the beginnings of the kitchen know-how you need to prepare healthy meals, and you have a good understanding of which foods are healthy and which ones aren’t. In this unit, you’ll learn how to translate those skills into lasting healthy habits that can stay with you throughout your life. These include how to plan meals for your changing needs, and your changing body, as well as ways to manage stress and keep your diet smart and focused throughout your life.
What will you learn in this unit?
