College Students Poor Food Choices Due to Stress

Many college students are at risk for hunger. Low-income students do not prioritize eating because of their other financial responsibilities, including rent, textbooks, and transportation. Students who tend to buy their own food, do not buy the most nutritious meals which includes the infamous ramen for lunch or dinner. Two articles that discuss students experiencing food insecurity are “Students Shouldn’t Have to Choose Between Books and Food” by Clare Cady explains how low-income students cannot afford the food provided on campus because of other responsibilities which tend to relate to school whether its textbooks or transportation to get to class. The other article, “Student Food Insecurity: The Skeleton in the University Closet” by

Perhaps the biggest factor that causes students to gain weight is the adjustment from eating at home to eating at college. A student from Chicago State University wrote in the school paper that, “Students in their first year away from home are sometimes not experienced in choosing foods or balanced meals” (French). The free-for-all campus style eating allows for unlimited choices of food and no parents to tell students what they can or cannot eat. Dietitian Ann Litt is also quoted in a Washington Post article in stating that, “the all you can eat concept in most college food services is an invitation overeat” (Linder). College dining halls are set up like fast food restaurants, and some even contain a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut. Fast food style eating really has no nutritional value, other than lots of fat and calories. In an article which examined the ways which students eat nutritional professor Christina Economos stated that more than fifty percent of students are eating too much fat, and seventy to eighty percent are getting too much saturated fat. She states that lack of fruit and vegetable consumption and the eating of mostly processed food is the main cause of weight gain among students (Linder). When students enter the dining hall they need to remind themselves that eating healthy is important.

Although the stress of college students is largely present, it is just another part of college. The real epidemic here besides added pressure on female students is how students as a whole can reduce the amount of stress that is put on them by personal practices. The hardships that students are going through now will be prevalent in the future when they become very successful from all the aspects they were challenged

What peoples beliefs are can also affect their diet, they may become vegetarian or vegan which can be very healthy if executed the right way. A lot of studies have been done that relate stress and weight gain, so stress can definitely influence the way a person eats. Not only can it be academically but also social kind of stress can contribute to unhealthy choices, for example, after a bad breakup people actually do tend to eat more sweets and just sit around. Information on what people can do different in their diets would be very helpful; having a better knowledge on healthier diets would help people recognize what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. Many times people turn to fad diets because the fastest way and easiest place to get information from, now a days, is going on the internet and that’s were so many fad diets are being advertised. Time, it is apparently a hard thing to find in college, no one has time to go out to the store and buy groceries much less cook them, leading people to find something they can make quick in order to go back and hit the books or the television, a quick meal most of the time isn’t the best thing. These were some of the main reasons mentioned by the students that seem to affect eating behaviors (Deliens,

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These are just a few things that college kids deal with on a daily basis. College campuses have become more aware of the stress levels that students go through, and have made accommodations that are available for all students.

Having bad eating habits can cause vastly eating disorders and illnesses. Students attending college that do not eat right are most likely to conceive an illness or become overweight. “An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for becoming overweight and obese,” (McNight). Freshman 15 is most likely to get to the students that have This is something to think about when it comes to meal plans. The majority of the meal plans offered at any college are high in fats and calories. By consuming all of these foods you are more likely to having this problem.

Regis College’s number one health concern is stress. The problem has come to be, due to the fact that students come from home, where their parents provided them with guidance, to a situation where they are independent. They have personal responsibility and it may not be completely straightforward for some people. Everyone’s experience is different, but each student experiences stress in some way. The competition for grades, the high expectations, relationships, future career choices, and several other aspects found in the college environment, can lead to stress. Going to college requires changes in daily routine. This includes sleeping adjustments, eating habits, time-management skills, balancing of relationships and several other changes.

Stress is a well known part of college. Even if prepared the long papers, painstaking testes, and unforgiving reading can be emotionally draining. Stress can also be cause by money, relationships and many other events that happen in ones life. One way people cope with emotions is by eating. Most of the time the food consumed when emotion eating is unhealthy and in large proportions. According to a study of college students and their cardiovascular health, almost 60 percent college students said their stress level as being high or

In a study at a Midwestern university whose participants varied in age, sex, their year in school, major etc., it was reported that the top four sources that cause stress in college students are from a change in sleeping habits, change in eating habits, the academic challenge of school work, and new responsibilities. Freshman specifically is more prone to this stress because of the new transition into the college lifestyle. Starting out as a freshman and already having a mindset of having too many responsibilities can set up a student to be unsuccessful right off the bat. They are not used to being away from home and being independent. They have never been held to the high

Weight gain is a serious problem among college students. Weight gain causes a lot of stress that can effect a person on how they live and how they view the values in life. With every choice they make, it can directly relate to how they are feeling, which is effected based on how they are feeling on their body figure. This is why diet plans or diet routines are very popular among college students because they will

They put together questionnaires assessing current and historical eating habits and weight and associated psychological functioning, more commonly known as depression. They also used structured psychiatric history interviews which discussed the patient's first degree relatives to determine lifetime diagnosis of anxiety disorders. The first evaluation session consisted of DSM-IV (a manual of mental disorders) Axis 1 (disorders that need treatment and are the most familiar) psychiatric disorders (including BED) and were determined using the Structured Clinical Interview. The interview assessed the age when BED started in the patient, the age when anxiety started, and the age when any other psychiatric disorders started. Participants completed self-report measures. Their height and weight were measured and their Body Mass Index (BMI) were calculated too. Also in the first evaluation session, they gave an examination called the eating disorder examination. This examination is an investigator-based interview method for assessing eating disorders. It focuses on the previous 28 days and assesses the frequency of different forms of overeating. An interview was also given in the first evaluation session called The Weight and EAting History Interview. This interview assessed the timing and sequencing of current and historical obesity and eating-related variable of interest. It also assessed the participants’ age when they were first overweight, age when they first lost at least 10 pounds dieting, and the age they began binge

Mental health problems are believed to be the result of a combination of factors, including age, genetics and environmental factors. One of the most obvious, yet under-recognized factors in the development of major trends in mental health is the role of nutrition.(Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008). Recent evidence suggests that good nutrition is essential for our mental health and that a number of mental health conditions may be influenced by dietary factors.. The body of evidence linking both diet and mental health is growing at a rapid pace ( Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008). Recently, there have been a number of published studies identifying an inverse association between diet quality and the common mental disorders, namely depression and anxiety, in adults (Bellisle, 2004). Other prospective studies suggest that diet quality influences the risk for depressive illness in adults over time. The evidence indicates that food plays a contributing role in the development, management and prevention of specific mental health problems such as depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease ( Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008).

Unfortunately, the United States has an overwhelming percentage of adults that are overweight or obese when compared to the global percentage of 33%, nearly half of the United States percentage of 68% (Fleming et al., 2014). Due to the number of people that are affected by excess body weight, many measures have been taken in order to reduce the percentage in the US including encouraging healthy eating habits at a young age, promoting an active lifestyle and a greater awareness of caloric intake. For this assignment I chose five people that I know through school and work, understanding their stressful lifestyle is important to know when considering possible factors that may contribute to their unhealthy habits.

Mental health is the state of mind an individual has and it involves ones physical health and emotions. Mental health in college is immensely important, yet extremely hard to maintain. Transitioning into college involves leaving families and friends behind, receiving more homework, living in a new area and living space with someone else, trying to balance school, work and a social life, and trying to find time to just relax and take a break. For some, the transition into college is simple and easy to do. For others, the transition into college can be scary and hard to cope with. Physically, college students either gain more weight, due to the amount of food available, or they lose too much weight, due to stress or just not enough time in the day to take a break. Also, college students tend to not have as much time as they used to for exercise which can prove to be unhealthy and can add to