Healthier Eating Habits for College Students

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Recommended: The college diet and how it changes eating habits

As students transition from high school to college, and are learning to make adjustments to start living on their own and how to deal with the stress of class, dietary health is usually one of the first things to be put on the back burner. Because of this, my behavior change is to start focusing on my dietary health and to start taking it more seriously. I found that the article Systematic Review of Dietary Interventions with College Students: Directions for Future Research and Practice to be very helpful and relatable.
The authors performed this study to identify specific program factors associated with healthful changes in students’ dietary habits. The importance of the study is that long-term implications to one’s health can be caused by the challenges to healthy eating when transitioning into college (Kelly, Mazzeo, & Bean, 2013, p. 304). The study, originally with 936 articles, was then narrowed down and involved 14 students’ research articles that met certain criteria set up by the authors. “Criteria for inclusion in this review were studies that evaluated the efficacy of intervention, program, or educational course intending to improve the dietary or nutrition habits of college/university graduate students,” (p. 305).
The method that the researchers used was evaluating the different interventions and targeting dietary outcomes. They reviewed the articles to determine how effective interventions were on improving college students’ dietary habits. The results of the study were that they determined that, although many methods of intervention were used, behavior change is most dependent on environmental, personal, and behavioral factors (p. 310). Some limitations in the study that could have impacted the results were that man...

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...er. Now that I have returned to eating how I did before the fast, I feel more tired and sluggish and not to my full potential and would like to get back to better eating habits. After reading this article my plans and goals haven’t changed much, but it has motivated me as I start to fall off track since it is so similar to my desired behavior change. I have learned that support groups can be helpful in keeping you motivated and accountable in trying to achieve a goal like this. I am also keeping a food log like some students did, and will try to think about the negative consequences the next time I reach for a piece of chocolate.

Works Cited

Kelley, 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 and Behavior, 45(4), 304-313.

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