In these 36 lectures, get answers to questions about the evolution of the human diet and its relationship to our bodies. Bringing together insights from fields including anthropology, health science, biology, and sociology, this partnership between The Great Courses and National Geographic lays bare what science can teach us about food.

With more than two-thirds of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, weight is clearly a national health concern. But how important is it for you to lose weight? Learn how your body-mass index, waist circumference, and medical history each impact your health. You'll be surprised to learn which factors are most important and why.

As you move into the long-term Live It! portion of the Mayo Clinic Diet, you'll learn how to realistically set your personal outcome and performance goals, as well as your daily caloric intake. With The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid as your guide, you'll see that no foods are completely off limits as long as you understand the crucial difference between serving size and portion size.

Science has revealed that the ability to lose weight and maintain that loss is affected by a complex web of hundreds of physical, mental, and emotional factors. Learn practical tips to help you implement the behavioral changes needed to lose weight and keep it off.

If you couldn't follow every detail of the Lose It! program for the full two weeks, don't worry. Chances are you did change some habits, and that is the beginning of success. Going forward, you can give yourself a bit of leeway on some habits - but others are too fundamental to your weight-loss success to be negotiable.

Some days you will eat too much, and some days you won't exercise, not even for five minutes. It happens to everyone. And eventually, you may even hit a plateau in your weight loss. Learn the best ways to keep negative self-talk at bay and continue to move forward toward better health, instead of expecting unattainable perfection and relapsing into old habits.

Everyone who undertakes a long-term plan to improve health will face obstacles. Learn to anticipate specific challenges and plan your work-arounds in advance. Whether it's grocery shopping, cooking, eating out, getting your family on board with food changes, or prioritizing exercise, you can identify and overcome potential obstacles to your optimum health. You can be successful.

Physical exercise provides a variety of health benefits with respect to heart disease, blood pressure, cognitive function, mood, diabetes, and some cancers - as well as helping the body lose weight and maintain that loss. In addition to structured exercise, learn how to incorporate more Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) into your day.

This startling documentary offers an in depth look at the commercial pet food industry. Through interviews with those who lost their pets to the negligence of commercially packaged pet food, PET FOOLED reveals the total lack of oversight and care for animal nutrition of the industry at large. Winner of the Unsung Hero Award at the **Catalina Film Festival**. *"PET FOOLED [is] a powerful new documentary that every pet owner needs to see ..." - Christopher...

“Healthy” food doesn’t have to taste bland and boring. Instead, learn how to use healthy ingredients and seasonings, particularly of international cuisines, to enliven your diet and keep the pleasure in cooking and eating with this course taught by a nutrition instructor and a master chef at The Culinary Institute of America.