The saying, “You are what you eat,” is appropriate since what we eat can greatly define our overall health and well-being. Sometimes, our unhealthy diet can be seen on the outside (body fat, skin troubles, nail color, etc.) , but the majority of the time, the effects of our unhealthy diet cannot be seen (fat around the organs, blood clots, etc.). Healthy diet choices are harder to make in college, especially during sophomore and freshman year. The transition from home cooked food to college food is a dietary struggle. At home, the student’s diet is often regulated by parents. In college, the student’s diet is left to be regulated by themselves. Going from being fed to feeding yourself is often what many students have to get used to. The biggest …show more content…
In the U.S.A., three out of the top ten leading causes of death are caused by unhealthy dietary intake. Each year, about 600,000 people die from heart disease, 130,000 people die from stroke, and 76,000 people die from diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Unhealthy diet can also increase the risk of cancer (). Obesity is the transition state from eating unhealthy to getting any poor diet related diseases. One concern is that many people correlate obesity with weight gain. However, being skinny does not mean you are healthy either. Determining someone’s health based on their weight is not plausible. People who are genetically thin -eating anything they want and still not gain any weight- can be just as unhealthy as someone who physically shows their unhealthiness through weight gain. Genetically thin people cannot insert fat between their skins, instead they distribute fats around organs -which are even harder to get rid of. Poor diet related diseases must be educated to college students during freshman orientation to help students learn early how to make better and healthier food decisions. Colleges should not only help students become aware of healthy dieting but also give more of these healthier options to the students -such as pairing up with healthier, fresh food partners like wholefoods. If students are given more healthier options -that also tastes good- they will be more inclined to eat healthier than
No one wants to be or feel like they are overweight, unhealthy, or unattractive. When someone in the general public looks in the mirror or steps on the scale, and they are not satisfied with what is being shown, one of the first ideas to bubble to the surface is dieting. There are so many dieting solutions out there and one of the most popular are the fad diets. Dieting should be about getting healthy and losing weight in a healthy way. Fad diets however, are about losing a lot of weight in a disproportionally short amount of time. Due to the loss of weight that the dieter wanted, when they reach their goal weight, they stop doing the fad diet and go back to their regular diet. This causes the weight that they shed to be put back on again in a disproportionally short amount of time, which is also just as unhealthy. This cycle of losing and gaining weight is only one of the many dangers of fad diets.
Racette, S.B., Deusinger, S.S., Strube, M.J., Highstein, G.R., & Deusinger, R.H. (2005). Weight changes, exercise, and dietary patterns during freshman and sophomore years of college. Journal of American College Health, 53(8), 245-251.
After taking a closer look at the American diet, it 's clear to see Americans are in a lot of trouble. The average American diet is filled with lots of greasy fast food, large cuts of meat, salty junk food and sugar-laden sodas. This tradition is then passed on to the children and creates a legacy of ailments, disease and a lower quality of life. To many people, plant-based eating sounds like a death sentence. In reality, it 's all about getting creative with the foods you already like. It also involves intentional meal-planning and organization. However, your health is worth it. The ability to experience a better quality of life should be motivation enough to start changing your eating habits. Consider a few of these simple ways to incorporate plant-based eating into each meal without eliminating delicious taste.
When I arrived here at college I was extremely disappointed with the selection of food here in the cafeteria. I frequently found myself eating only hamburgers and pizza over and over again, simply because I did not like the other choices. About four months into the school year I had do go to the doctor for a virus and when the nurse weighed me I was a little surprised by what I saw. I had gained a little over ten pounds, close enough to what some refer to as the “Freshman 15.” It is a common fear among college students that they are going to gain fifteen pounds during the course of adjusting to college life. However experts have stated that the idea of the so called “Freshman 15,” is not that accurate. Every college student is obviously not going to gain fifteen pounds. However I believe that it is possible and it is a problem for many college students. College life completely changes eating habits among college students. Most students do not make the right choices about eating and exercising. College students across the country are severely unhealthy in their behaviors, and for some students the “Freshman 15” may be a reality.
Walk onto any college campus or any other type of school campus and you will see many students that are either obese or close to being obese. Many cafeterias serve healthy foods and non-healthy foods. Schools came up with the rule that you can’t check out lunch without a fruit or vegetable. The only problem is that most students end up taking them and end up wasting them by throwing them away. Considering I am a college student, I understand the challenge of eating unhealthy when I am trying to eat healthier. Overall, I know that if I don 't start eating healthier soon I could end up gaining a lot of weight and become obese. For this research project, I decided to ask, what can be done about the problem of obesity in our country? This question
Nutrition is the process of obtaining and consuming the right nutrients you need in order to grow and survive. These nutrients consist of water, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and fats. What you choose to eat has a significant impact on your well being, growth and overall health. Bad nutrition can lead to lifelong consequences such as Diabetes, High blood pressure, Obesity, Cardiovascular disease and even some Cancers. A healthy diet helps people manage a desirable body weight and composition that allows them to do their daily mental and physical activities (Youdim 1). If you eat the correct meals it provides energy and even helps boost your immune system. There are many examinations available to you to check if you’re on the
Food is the essential vitality of life and the essence of survival. It nourishes one’s physical body to enable pursuit of passion. However, in overwhelming aspects of American society, food is viewed as an enemy. It is seen as the root cause of obesity which carries heavy condemnations of ugliness and weakness. Countless people have become obsessed with food as a means of exerting strength, displaying will-power, and achieving alleged beauty. The way society views nutrition has become misconstrued and disordered, resulting in unhealthy relationships with food, and thus emotional and physical harm. The most effective way to change society’s relationship with food is to target the presentation, practices, content, and intentions of nutrition
The nutrients that they get from food are what contribute to help all the systems in their body function properly. In their first year, students are in a transition phase between the kind and amount of nutrients they used to get at home and the ones they are getting in college. Instead of helping students make a smooth transition, the food that is offered in the meal plan makes it rough for them. This rough transition occurs mainly occurs because the meal plan 's food does not have high nutritional value. Consequently, the results of the rough transition reflects on the student 's health, academic performance, and athletic performance. For instance, Kelly Harris, a first-year student-athlete, said, "It would be easier to eat healthier without meal plans, that’s for sure.” When you have meal plans and you can eat at the school’s buffet. People do not tend to eat the healthiest of foods prepared when so many delicious, rather than nutritious, options are served. A correlation between fifteen pounds of weight gain and the college freshman year has been made because of meal plans. Many of the meals provided to students with meal plans are not quality meals, just innutritious food. They are prepared ahead of time and have been sitting out. That does not sound healthy or appetizing to me. I think that eating unhealthy food, such as the food provided by the meal plan, is not benefiting my energy level. It could
Moreover, the controversy over cafeteria food is whether or not it is healthy for all students from elementary schools to colleges. Numerous factors lead to unhealthy eating in schools and on campuses. Sometimes options with better nutrition are offered, but when there are, they tend to be less appealing than the unhealthy foods which turns to obesity. Many schools are undergoing budget cuts and changes, and healthy food tends to take a back burner when deciding where the limited amounts of money should go (Gupta). Unfortunately, when schools do have healthy ingredients, the food is usually prep...
1. Introduction.- What does it mean to be obese? When people eat more calories than they burn off, their bodies store the extra calories as fat.
America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Take a look around. Fast food chains on every block, more and more technology to make our lives easier, and high amount of stress are just a few factors to weight gain in our country. There are many different views on obesity and how the people think it should be resolved, whether it's government making the change or the people taking care of themselves. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Are we doing enough to bring these statistics down? No. In the last 40 years, there has been a growth to more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America (“Adolescent and School Health”). Restaurants (such as Wendy's, McDonald's etc.) serve more than 50 million people per day, generating about 65 million in sales annually. Only since obesity has become a national epidemic have fast food restaurants changed their ways. But we need to do more than just change the kind of oil the french fries are fried in. Better yet, why don't we remove, or intensely decrease the number of the unhealthy fast food chains, and spread more healthy fast food chains, such as Subway? Is it something government could take act in? Should the United States government take measures to fight the rise of obesity in the country, or are choices concerning diet and nutrition better left to the individuals, free of government interference?
Through life we have many different stages to where we are either settling down for a nice home cooked meal or we are constantly on the go, running around our hectic lives, eating very unhealthy foods. Especially in our college years, students are always on the go running to and from class grabbing a burger and fries from a campus restaurant or eating the microwaveable foods like ramen. Many people try to eat healthy, but always succumb to the stereotype that eating healthy is expensive and takes too much time. This is a common misconception because there are ways in which anyone can eat healthy and on a budget as long as they eat proper portions, eat the right kind of foods, and excessive.
Educational institutions have the potential to, first and foremost, educate and assist the young people of today with making the positive, healthful choices necessary to maintain good health. Over 4,500 students have been followed in recent research studies and these “thousands of sixth graders who participated in a school-based health program were less obese by eighth grade than a group of similar children who did not, according to a new study done for the National Institutes of Health” (Rabin). Schools need to create health programs focused on assisting all children suffering from being overweight or obese. Policies such as fitness programs, nutrition classes, and healthful meals can even impact every student by creating a strong foundation and awareness of the negative, long term effects associated with practicing unhealthy habits. Although the financial expenses would be necessary, the adaption of scho...
Eating Responsibly To eat responsibly means to know what you are eating and knowing what you are putting into your body, whether it is healthy for you or not. It’s a sad fact that the typical American diet (high in meat and processed foods) is not healthy. There are a lot of different ways to stay healthy, but it can also be very difficult to follow a good diet plan all the time. I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I have tried to eat well before all of my classes. I include the necessary protein of eggs and sausage, and include a fruit of some kind.
A healthy lifestyle is usually picked up as we get older. However, think of how much more beneficial it would be for our bodies when we get older, if we would have learned and adapted to a healthier lifestyle when we were younger? Teaching your kids how important a healthy diet is, will help them maintain that lifestyle in their older years. Not to mention have lower health risks, higher self-esteem and it will give them the energy they need to keep up with their eating habits and maintain their body weight.