Kevin Bibiano 

Professor Weaver 

English 1102  

30 May 2022 

Importance of Nutritional Values Across Colleges 

They say that Breakfast is one of the important meals of the day, alongside lunch and dinner. As students transition to colleges and universities, students have more authority in their daily life choices. This includes dietary and eating habits. A respectable number of students receive their nutrition through their school’s cafeteria, vendors, and vending machines that are offered at their campuses. However, when students begin to critique the quality or options of the food that is provided in their schools, they begin to demand reparations. Limiting these problems can open many doors to opportunities for a student’s personal improvement. 

When students begin to transition to colleges and universities, they have more authority in their school life. For instance, students begin to endure maintaining their eating habits. In colleges, there are some students who do not maintain good eating habits, and this complicates the health of the individual. In the article, “A College Fast-Food Environment and Student Food and Beverage Choices: Developing an Integrated Database to Examine Food and Beverage Purchasing Choices among College Students”, Elizabeth Racine et al. Stated that: “University students report poor dietary intake [2–5], and it is well-documented that transitioning to college is associated with excess weight gain [6–8].” (Racine et al. 1) Issues like this may cause barriers to students’ health. A student’s wellness is important, therefore there is an association with even deeper issues such as weight gain or obesity. Proper dieting is a factor that leads to success in college, therefore students do not want to put their health at risk. Recine also explains how authority is now limited, and as students transition, they must be aware of their own health. ( 1) This further shows that, since students are fending for themselves, throughout college and adulthood, they should have access to more nutritional foods. This is vital for students because their health is their responsibility. Having these changes take place, not only are they important to promote better eating habits, but also for academic 

Students who demand changes in their school’s nutritional system may think of the long-term benefits in grades and academic performance. For instance, there are direct effects on providing better sources such as higher test scores. According to the research performed by Michael L. Anderson, et al., “On average, student test scores are 0.03 to 0.04 standard deviations higher (about 4 percentile points).” (Anderson et al. 63) This was after the fact that colleges take the initiative to contract with healthy brands, to provide students with healthier snack options. Overall, test scores seem to be higher, when schools take nutrition into account. The overall performance in colleges is important to students, therefore, providing small changes can be an aid to the personal success of a student. This also applies to students with lower-income families, who may not have as much money to spend on school lunches. Research in, “The Quality of School Lunch and Academic Performance” states, “Not only that, but the test score increases are also about 40% larger for students who qualify for reduced-price or free school lunches.” ( 63) Students that may not have the best financial situations are also those students who seek nutrition from schools, and these students were able to get higher test scores when healthier brands were contracted in their schools. Students who do receive the right resources in food and nutrition seem to have higher rates of better grades. For example, it has been reported in,” The influence of eating habits on the academic performance of university students”, “Participants who reported having drunk seven glasses of milk or more over the past seven days reported the highest GPAs (3.60±0.37 …” (Reuter et al. 3) Those students who have those nutritional resources seem to have better averages in their GPAs, therefore, there is an association in promoting and having nutritional foods in schools. This pushes towards academic benefits, gives a greater reason to have more options and promotes quality food. To further discuss the topic at hand, Reuter says, “…with students who had fast food at least 7 times in the past week having significantly lower current GPAs than students who had not eaten any fast food in the last week (Steel-Dwass post-hoc test; p1⁄40.0007)” (5) This shows that there is a correlation on the habits and type of food you consume on your grade. This gives another important reason why students should be more careful about their diets. The effects could be worse if an unhealthy lifestyle overall is maintained, however, this is not the case for most students. Nutritional values are a must and should be considered by all teens when dining. While this is true students may also find themselves trying to better discipline their meal plans. 

As the students begin to develop a sense of knowledge on a balanced diet, they begin to take these concerns and apply them to their everyday life choices. The Research study, say that “In a study by Mooney & Walbourn (2001), females avoided certain foods for their concern for weight, health and ethical reasons (especially when avoiding meat) more significantly than males.” (Deshpande et al. 147) These health concerns apply to both females and males, but when students begin to experience negative drawback from the food provided in their schools, they begin to have an open mind for the quality of their food. This is what leads to better eating habit choices. However, females in specific sometimes have some differences, where they may find themselves eating out. Bivariate analyses confirm that the mean Student Average FFH score for females is slightly higher than the mean Student’s Average FFH score for males (2.87 compared to 2.82, with slightly higher than the mean Student’s Average FFH score for males (2.87 compared to p ≤ 0.0001), Figure 2. 2.82, with p = <0.0001” (Racine et al. 6) Sometimes, students find themselves over purchasing outside food, because of social factors. Overall, the choice is for the student to make, and if they want the benefits, they will learn in the long run.  

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is something easier than saying, knowing the barriers and temptations in unhealthy foods that could exist. However, maintaining some sort of knowledge on a balanced diet is beneficial since people want to stay healthy. In colleges and universities, there is a toll on this because a reasonable number of students depend on the food provided on their campuses. When nutritional values are not considered, there are lots of crucial benefits from academic to healthy habit making. To review, students are not the same, and dietary styles differ amongst students, however, there are various ways that students can receive benefits from better food choices. Students should focus more on how they treat their bodies because there can be more than just the success of maintaining a healthy diet.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited 

Anderson, Michael L., et al. “How the Quality of School Lunch Affects Students’ Academic Performance.” Education Digest, vol. 83, no. 6, Feb. 2018, pp. 61–64. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=a9h&AN=127089030&site=ehost-live&scope=site 

 

Deshpande, Sameer, et al. “Factors Influencing Healthy Eating Habits Among College Students: An Application of the Health Belief Model.” Health Marketing Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2, Apr. 2009, pp. 145–64. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/07359680802619834 

 

Elizabeth F. Racine, et al. “A College Fast-Food Environment and Student Food and Beverage Choices: Developing an Integrated Database to Examine Food and Beverage Purchasing Choices among College Students.” Nutrients, vol. 14, no. 900, Feb. 2022, p. 900. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14040900. 

 

Reuter, Peter R., et al. “The Influence of Eating Habits on the Academic Performance of University Students.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 69, no. 8, Nov. 2021, pp. 921–27. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1715986  

 

Staff, Woman’s Day. “All the Heart-Healthy Foods and Nutrients Every Woman Should Add to Her Diet.” Woman’s Day, Woman’s Day, 29 Jan. 2020, https://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/advice/g1271/heart-healthy-food/.