Food Availability for a College Student: The Case of UC Irvine Students Today many college students are faced with eating a poor diet, because they do not have the money or the time to eat properly. With this in mind, I am going to research what college students are eating and how they obtain the food. To conduct this research, I will observe the food UC Irvine college students are eating for their lunchbreaks, either at work or in between classes, around the University of California at Irvine campus. By conducting this study, I will find out whether students are buying their food from grocery stores, buying from fast-food restaurants or cooking the food themselves. In addition, I will interview subjects and learn about their daily food …show more content…
They concluded that food insecurity is an important problem that college students have to deal with, and additional systems that can distribute healthier foods to these students should be implemented. Additionally, it surveyed 354 students enrolled in universities around Oregon during 2011. In order to measure food insecurity, the survey relied on the Food Security Survey Model, while also measuring socioeconomic and demographic background. The study noted that most students, who made under $15,000 a year, were especially vulnerable to food insecurity. By relying of quantitative research, this study manages to estimate the amount of college students suffering from poor eating habits. This illustrates that college students have a very high level of food insecurity, and I might be able to observe this activity during my research on the University of California, Irvine campus. This, food insecurity study, is beneficial to my own research, although it is limited because it did not use a qualitative approach as I will use. Furthermore, their surveys were conducted online and asked every participant the same questions. On the other hand, I will be conducting interviews, rather than surveys, which will individualize information garnered on each participant. I will be using less participants, but my study should …show more content…
During the 1990-1991 school year, dietary records of 1,912 college students were examined to identify the amount of meals students skipped and which types of food students were actually eating. The study found that 22% of the students skipped their breakfast, however students were recorded to snack at least once a day. Furthermore, the study also found men consumed foods with higher calories and higher amount of fat. The study appears to be more quantitative, however qualitative practices must have taken place when interviewing subjects about their meals to input into the dietary records. The findings propose that college students should be eating more vegetables and fruits, along with consuming less carbonated beverages and dishes with a high amount of fat. Although, this is a well done study, it is limited because it was done over 20 years ago, so eating habits of college students might have changed within this time. For instance, within these 20 years, the perception of soda has changed drastically, which illustrates the need for this type of study to be more relevant to college students today. Moreover, much of this study is focused on what these students are eating, but I also believe finding out about how students attain their meals is important for the understanding of a college student’s dietary
“Hungry for Change” is an eye opening documentary made to explore the role that food plays in peoples’ lives. The experts, ranging from authors to medical doctors, address a variety of claims through testimonials, experiments, and statistical evidence. They not only state the flaws in this generation’s diet but also logically explain the reasons behind the downfall in peoples’ diet and offer better ways to approach our health.
In order to find out how many students make use of their current meal plan, my group went out and surveyed forty students (twenty-three freshmen, six second-years, six third-years, and five fourth-years) currently attending the University of Florida in a face-to-face question format. A majority of the students who were involved in this study were freshmen, as they are the demographic that is the most encouraged to purchase a meal plan for convenience as well as social reasons. The students were asked a set of five questions as follows:
Experts who study the concept of the “Freshman 15” are deeply divided in their findings. Some downplay the significance of the problem of freshman weight gain, basing their findings only on the average weight gain among college students. In a study done by the Journal of American College Health, found that of the 59 percent of students who gained weight the average increase was only 4.6 pounds. They concluded their study by stating that they believed the Freshman 15 is a myth, based upon that premise (Graham, and Jones). The truth is that fifty-nine percent of the students studied did gain weight, and not all students are going to gain exactly fifteen pounds. Other experts do however believe that weight gain among college freshman is a very serious problem. Registered dietitian Ann Selkowitz Litt recently authored, “The College Students Guide to Eating Well on Campus,” which is designed to help college students make the right eating choices. On an online chat with several college students on USA Today’s website she stated that “College students now are gaining the "freshman 20" or "freshman 25.” She blames the growing problem on erratic eating habits, the drinking large quantities of alcoh...
With an unlimited meal plan and buffet-style meals, do we students know how big our portions should be? If we are accustomed to being served super-sized portions, we might not realize when we are serving ourselves over-sized portions in our dining halls. In fact, researchers have found that increased portion size is an even greater problem in cafeteria settings like ours, noting a positive association between larger food receptacles and increased consumption(2). A correlational study at Cornell found significant weight gain in freshmen during the first twelve weeks of school and identified that both the “all-you-can-eat” dining hall style and student snacking on “junk-food” were key variables explaining a positive linear relationship with weight gai...
Food insecurity refers to the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of adequate, nutritious food. A direct correlation has been distinguished between food, income and overall health (Noreen et al. 2001). Food insecurity has been strongly influenced by financial constraints, resulting in individuals choosing to manage their food expenditures and dietary choices based off of what they can afford (McIntyre et al. 2016). Additionally, food insecurity leads to the altering of eating patterns for adults and ultimately hunger in children; due to depletion of resources and food supplies. Households experiencing food insecurity are commonly lacking sufficient funds for food and acquire several health problems as a consequence. Food insecurity was significantly associated with poor health, multiple chronic conditions, obesity, anxiety, distress and depression (Noreen et al. 2001). Therefore, this is an issue of importance to public
One factor of the freshman 15 is the student’s living environment. Students living on campus in residence halls are more prone to weight gain than students living at home with their parents or off campus (Provencher et al., 2009). This is due to the availability of food on campus at various universities that studies were held. While students living at home with their parents often have home cooked meals, often dining halls in college campuses serve food with an all-you-can eat buffet style, where students are free to eat as much as they like. Students living away from ...
...College students are the next generation of food consumers just starting to purchase and prepare their own food, setting purchasing habits that will follow them into their lives as they start their own careers. These habits will shape what food is in demand, and therefore what food is produced. Not only do college students hold financial power over the future economy, but they must make the decision of whether to become the next unhealthy generation, that will also indoctrinate their children to accept the level of food quality that is currently labeled as junk food as a standard level quality of food.
The United States Department of Agriculture defines food unsecurity as the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for a household. Food insecurity also does not always mean that the household has nothing to eat. More simply stated it is the struggle to provide nutritional food for ones family and/or self. The people that suffer from food insecurity are not all living below the poverty line. In 2012 49.0 million people were considered food insecure in the United States of those 46.5 million were in poverty (Hunger & Poverty Statistics, 2012). For some individual’s food insecurity is only a temporary situation for others it maybe for extended period. Food insecurity due temporary situation such as unemployment, divorce, major medical or illness can be become more long term. The vast majority of these are families with children.
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
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.
...omething to go. I found out that college student’s want foods that are quick, taste good, and cheap. The limitation to my research was that I only passed out ten surveys all at the cafeteria. Perhaps if I did more or passed them out at a different location I might have gotten different results. I also only interviewed two people, and a larger sample might have changed my results. Also only observing my roommates shopping might have limited me to what I always eat, other college students might buy healthier foods when they shop. Take a minute now and think about what you eat in an average day and see if you fall into the categories of eating unhealthy with the majority of college students. Next time you buy something to eat take a second and look what’s in it and think to yourself. Should I be eating this? Or is there something healthier that I could be eating?
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
Bisanz, K., Krogstrand, K. (2007). Consumption & Attitudes about Whole Grain Foods of UNL Students Who Dine in a Campus Cafeteria. Rurals, 2 (1), 1-16. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/rurals/vol2/iss1/1/
Regarding the students surveyed, from Figure 1.1, the average students probably eat out at a fast food restaurant 1-2 times per week around 31 percent, closely followed by around 61 percent who indicated 3-6 times per week. From the surveyed Figure 1.2 finding, there are many reasons have caused students to eat out such as advertisement and restaurant discount promotions. Fast-food restaurants have become very common, and are visited by all types of people. The growth and popularity of fast food has come to be known as the "McDonaldization" of America. (Judith C. Rodriguez)
Food is essential in everyone’s daily life. Keeping an eye on my personal eating diets is very helpful to live a healthy life. The food diary is recorded once a week, with information of the food I eat during the day and my initial observations. My experience is very enlightening. There are evident changes of my eating and living habits, which leads me to comprehend the interactions between student life and the backstory of food better.