Conclussions

From the survey and the interviews it seems that students do want to eat healthy but do not always take the necessary steps to do so, such as eating breakfast or three meals a day. Also some of their ideas of what constitutes a well-balanced meal may be outdated according to when the last time and place they learned about nutrition with some using the old version of the food pyramid and others following the my plate model. The survey did not adequately show what students felt was a problem for eating breakfast or three meals a day but from the interviews it can be seen that some students may feel that it takes a lot of time. This time students may feel could be used for other things such as school, activities, sleep, etc. Students may also feel that eating three meals or breakfast is not important and therefore could snack or skip meals. It did appear that many students preferred to only spend thirty minutes or less on preparing and eating meals, although many have their own meals prepared for them and this could help to lower the amount of time taken.

            Many students seemed to understand what was important to have a healthy meal and they do think about making healthy decisions when choosing what to eat. More should be researched to see what exactly affects most students in making their decisions and how often they think about eating healthy. Students may know the basic information on what is better to eat but they may not always use this knowledge. There are also some ideas about a mismatch between our modern environment and our earlier environments that could be useful in helping students eat healthier. Such as realizing that in our modern environment we transport our foods which led to developments in food to make them transport easier. This means some food has fewer nutrients. By knowing facts like these, students can also look to see if the food is produced locally or not and realize they may have to eat a little more in order to regain those lost nutrients. Another mismatch is that as hunter and gatherers food was important to find and it was seen as a priority. Now that eating healthy has become less of a priority it seems like students take whatever is easiest and fast and cheap which can lead to bad eating habits which can cause health conditions later in life.

            There are some ways to help make sure students are thinking about eating healthy and taking the time to prepare and eat healthy meals. A study by Kavita H. Poddar, et al. attempted to help improve dairy intake of students through emails and based on Social Cognitive Theory. They focused on Social support (including family and friends in emails to provide information to them), self-efficacy (ways to help students have more dairy in diet through suggestions and recipes), outcome expectations (listing the benefits of dairy) and self-regulation (behavior checklists and weekly quizzes). This all helped contribute to a significant increase in dairy intake. This was designed as an eight-week online class. A similar system could be set up in order to help students think more about eating healthy meals, having people hold them accountable and teaching themselves how to make smart choices. Many students know what makes a healthy meal but they do not always hold themselves accountable and this system could help them to do that. (Poddar 2012)

Another study Kelly et. al. looked at various methods in order to help college students make healthier choices. They noted that no one study was sufficient enough to yield lasting results as some studies showed small improvements immediately after interventions, but often long term showed that students had stopped eating healthy. Another problem was interventions were not set up so that other factors were made obsolete. What was found to be effective was education and self-regulation (such as setting goals). Another possible solution is drawing attention to eating healthy in areas where students eat (Kelly 2013). This could mean putting up posters in dining halls that promotes eating a variety of food, and the right portions of food. Dining halls may also want to feature an example of a healthy meal, using the foods that are provided for that meal. The University dining halls do provide nutrition facts above dishes that are served but this may seem tedious to students who view food as a second priority. Having more visuals that can be quickly looked at may help students to remember to control what they eat. Dining halls would be especially important to students as almost every student has to eat in one for a year and could help start forming the right habits before they completely lose that small step of food already prepared and having options to having options a student has to prepare herself. Then the above email interventions could be used to supplement these eating habits for those who do not live in dorms.

Students should start making sure their eating habits are good eating habits at this age in order to have a lifetime of healthy eating. This can help reduce the risk of potential health disasters later in life and will keep people living a healthy lifestyle. It is important to make students understand that eating healthy is a necessity and that just eating any food is enough. Students need to be aware of the importance of food and start to make eating well a priority.

Sources:

Kelly, N. R., Mazzeo, S. E., & Bean, M. K. (2013). Systematic Review of Dietary Interventions With College Students: Directions for Future Research and Practice. Journal Of Nutrition Education & Behavior, 45(4), 304-313.

Poddar, K. H., Hosig, K. W., Anderson-Bill, E. S., Nickols-Richardson, S. M., & Duncan, S. E. (2012). Dairy Intake and Related Self-Regulation Improved in College Students Using Online Nutrition Education. Journal Of The Academy Of Nutrition & Dietetics,112(12), 1976-1986.