College Student’s Nutrition

College Student’s Nutrition

by David Hymes

There are a lot of things on the mind of college freshman when they first get to college. They are thinking about the dorm life, the social life, the classroom environment, and their professors. They are not thinking about how they are going to maintain a healthy nutritious lifestyle over the next four years. But this is important and the dining services at University Kentucky are a huge part of the nutrition of students. Every student at the University of Kentucky uses the dining programs everyday and rely on them to fuel their body and mind. Without them students would not have what they need to be successful. The University of Kentucky is not alone when it comes to the importance of dining services. Almost all colleges rely heavily on their meal programs. The dining services are the majority of the diet of a lot of students. The dining services should provide options for students to have a healthy diet. A lot of college students live a unhealthy lifestyle and the dining services should not contribute to this unhealthy lifestyle. But the food still should being appealing to college students. Students should also stay away from behavior and situations that could cause them to make unhealthy choices.

College students are unhealthy people especially college freshman. The term “freshman 15” is very much real and a lot of students experience weight gain during there first year of college. In fact about 70 percent of students gain wait their freshman year. This is due to the fact that this is the first time students have been away from home for a extended period of time. Students are use to home cooked meals cooked by mom. But at college Mom is not there and students grab what is easiest and what is easiest is usually not the healthiest choice (Dryden). The universities should put more effort in making healthier options more available. With more healthy eating options students will be way more likely to make the right healthy choices everyday.

Student nutrition and wellness is an issue across the country. But all the burden can not be put solely on the colleges and universities. The Students should take responsibility. But the parents should also be more active in the nutrition of students. If parents provide a healthy diet at home students will be more likely to have a healthy diet at school. High schools should also put a greater emphasis on nutrition. They should educate student on the importance of a healthy diet in college. Students should go to college knowing that they are adults and need to have learned the correct steps to maintain a healthy balanced diet (College Kids).

With big universities it can be hard to ensure a healthy lifestyle by all students and it should not lie on the university solely. The people that attend college are all adults and need to make healthy choices by themselves. However, the university should take some responsibility. The universities should provide healthy options. Even though it may be more economically feasible to give out unhealthy options the health of the students should be more important. This is because potential students see it as a positive in schools with diverse and healthy food options. If a school only offers the same food over and over again that will get on students nerves.

The University of kentucky offers many different places to eat on campus. One of those places is K Lair. The K Lair grill has been an institution at the University of Kentucky for decades. The K Lair is not known as the most healthy place to eat on campus. In fact it has been known as the “grease pit” in past years. But K Lair over the past few years has stepped away from that and moved toward healthier options. K Lair now has a deli that offers fresh cold cut sandwiches and other healthier options. This provides a nice healthy break from the standard burger or fried foods found at K Lair. K Lair also offers unique salad choices (university). Ryan Riordan a sophomore at UK and an employee at K Lair says “A lot of people see it as impossible to eat healthy at K Lair but that is not true… K Lair does offer healthy choices and its just a matter of looking for the healthy options.” K Lair does still provide the unhealthy options but they are not recommended to eat all the time. But they are nice to have occasionally (University).

The University kentucky dining services and meal plans are not universally used. In fact colleges in Kentucky provide different options. Centre college for instance is a small liberal arts college in Danville Kentucky and the dining services are different there. This is because centre is a much smaller school compared to the University of Kentucky. Centre has only a couple dining locations on campus. The main one on campus is Cowan dining Hall. This place provides a lot of different options for dining. Because centre is smaller and there is a lot less students more emphasis can be put on the healthy options. The dining services make it easier have a balanced healthy diet. They provide everything from a salad bar to fresh healthy entree options. They even provide healthy exotic options to switch up from the everyday food options. “I love the food at Centre. I thought when I came to college I would start eating way unhealthier and put on weight but that is not the case at all in fact the food has made me feel healthier than ever. ” But because Centre is small there is limited food options and there are those who get sick of eating at the same place everyday. But Centre is the same as the University of Kentucky in one aspect and that is that Centre could not survive without there dining services. This especially true at Centre because it is not that close to very many outside restaurants (Centre).

Another small school with a unique dining program is Morehead State. Morehead is unique because although it is a small school it does offer a large amount of dining areas. The dining areas on campus at Morehead also emphasize nutrition heavily. There dining website provides facts on having a healthy diet (Campus). They even provide podcasts on healthy diet and nutritional tips. Like Centre due its size Morehead is able to put more of a emphasis on student nutrition and wellness. “As a football player I need to maintain a healthy diet to maintain my fitness level, Morehead offers an environment where I can do that” said Hunter Brewer a freshman linebacker. Morehead is a small school the athletes take up a large percentage of the student population and if the school wants good sports teams the school needs to provide a healthy and nutritious diet so that the athletes can stay fit.

Staying fit and healthy can be challenging. This is especially true in college. Eating healthy is important and hard to do as well. It is especially difficult for part time students. When a student is full time especially freshman and especially at the University of Kentucky, almost all meals are eaten on campus. While part time students tend to eat more off campus. It is easier to healthy on campus than off campus. This is because the dining services make it easy to eat healthy and quickly. A student can grab a salad from Ovids very quickly for example. While part time students have to eat off campus items like fast food(Quintallani). Fast food is not nearly as healthy as the campus dining options at the University of Kentucky. Also a long with be given more opportunities to eat healthy, full time students have more opportunities to workout and be active especially at the University of Kentucky. Full time students have the Johnson Center and the Underground to use. While part time students can use these facilities they are not on campus as much and use these places significantly less. Also the intramural leagues at the University of kentucky are full of predominantly full time students. Part time students tend to have jobs that keep them busy and make them unable to participate in these programs making it difficult to main a healthy, nutritious and active lifestyle (Quintillani).

Many college students live unhealthy life styles all over the country. There are many factors that contribute to this unhealthy life style. One of these is the academic pressure put on the traditional college students. College students frequently do “all nighters” where they stay up all night studying. This practice is very unhealthy and does not help a students nutritional health. During these all nighters students do not have the time to eat healthy. Students are also under a lot of stress during these all nighters and make the food choice that will make them happy. Things that makes students happy in those situations are things like candy bars and potato chips. The food options during these all night study sessions is not good. Usually all thats available is a vending machine filled with unhealthy items. Students need to stay awake during these all night study sessions and students feel the need to drink a lot of caffeine and eat a lot of sugar this practices is not healthy and hurts the body. To maintain a healthy lifestyle students should prepare for the all nighter. Students should bring healthy snacks and in take as little caffeine as possible. “All nighters” happen to all students at some point but students should prepare for them. The schools should also take some initiative however and make healthy snacks more available at night. Students should not have to settle for unhealthy food. The vending machines especially should be stocked up with healthier items. They should at least give the students an opportunity to eat healthy (Oz).

When students get to college it is the first time a lot of them have been without parental supervision. This new found freedom gives them the opportunity to do things that they could not get away with at home. One of the new freedoms they have is to go to parties and to consume drugs and alcohol. Consuming alcohol and drugs is extremely unhealthy for students. Alcohol for example kills brain cells and can cause weight gain. Alcohol can also cause people to make bad decisions regarding there food choices. This is because when under the influence of alcohol a persons judgement is impaired and this causes people to make bad decisions in their food choices. When someone is intoxicated and gets hungry they want immediate gratification. It is usually late at night on the weekend meaning the dining services on campus are usually closed and that means the food options are limited to fast food. Also at parties there is not a lot of healthy food options offered. Things like chips are served most of the time. To maintain a healthy lifestyle students should stay away from things like drugs and alcohol entirely. But not all students do that, those students should eat something healthy and substantial before going out. Also they should refrain from binge drinking or getting too drunk. Finally students should not excessively drink regularly. That type of behavior will do damage to your liver and cause weight gain (Oz).

Students need to stay active to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Inactivity leads students into unhealthy eating habits. In college there is quite a bit of downtime sometimes. That downtime can cause students to be lazy and to sit around in the dorms and watch television. This is dangerous to nutritional health because a lot of college students have food in the dorm room. The problem with this is the food usually found in dorm rooms is usually not healthy. The food in dorm rooms tends to be snack food things like potato chips, hot pockets, and easy mac. Also a lot of students do not use the down time to get a lot done. The ideal usage of this time is to probably work out or to plan ahead in their classes. But a lot of students do not do this and instead use this time to sit around and usually watch television. The danger here nutritionally is boredom eating or eating cause there is food there. This type of behavior is dangerous and can cause weight gain. Schools and universities can fight this by offering programs and activities that encourage to get out and be active (Fortunato).

Meal skipping in college is a dangerous to a students nutrition. Students in college tend to skip meals, mainly breakfast, and it may be hurting them nutritionally. Skipping a meal may seem safe to do and may seem like it would help in weight loss but it in fact does not. College students tend to try to get the most sleep as possible and wake up as late as possible for their morning classes leaving no time for breakfast. This is harmful to a student’s nutrition. It is harmful because students will end up eating more in the day. This is because at the other meals students are hungrier than usual. The hungrier a student is the less they will care about what they put in their mouth. Students should try and eat something in the mornings even if it is light. If they do it will end up being very helpful in the long run. Schools should help out with this. Schools should make breakfast more available and quick. If schools put effort in having quick and nutritious breakfast items available the students will be healthier. Also by doing this more students will buy food bringing more money into the school (College Kids).

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in college is difficult but it is diffidently not impossible. It takes some effort from the student and from the institution. Students need to avoid unhealthy behavior and unhealthy situations to stay nutritionally sound. All institutions should do all they can to keep their students healthy. It may take some effort but will end up helping the students and college as whole in the long run. The University of Kentucky’s dining services may go unnoticed but it is diffidently crucial to the university. The University of Kentucky’s dining services does provide an environment where students can be healthy. But more can be done and student nutrition should be emphasized in the future.

Works Cited

“Centre College Dining Services.” Centre College Dining Services. Centre College, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

“College Kids Gain Weight beyond First Year.” MSNBC News. MSNBC, 22 Oct. 2006. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

Dryden, Jim. “Study Finds Most Students Gain Weight during Early College Years | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis.” Study Finds Most Students Gain Weight during Early College Years | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University in St.Louis, 8 Sept. 2005. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

Fortunato, Kait. “Nutrition for the College Student.” Timi Gustafson RD How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun. Solstice Publications, 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

“K-Lair.” Personal interview. 15 Nov. 2012.

Kurtcher, Matthew. “Centre College Food.” E-mail interview. 20 Nov. 2012.

“Morehead State Food.” E-mail interview. 16 Nov. 2012.

Oz, Daphne. “The 5 Danger Zones of College Student Nutrition.” The Forum for HEALTHY CHOICES at Eastern. Eastern Washington University, 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

Quintillani, Lisa M., Hilary L. Bishop, Mary L. Greany, and Jessica A. Whiteley. “Factors across Home, Work, and School Domains Influence Nutrition and Physical Activity Behaviors of Nontraditional College Students.” Nutrition Research Oct.-Nov. 2012: n. pag. Ebsco. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

“University of Kentucky: Dining Services -K Lair.” University of Kentucky: Dining Services -K Lair. University of Kentucky, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.

“Welcome to CampusDish at Morehead State University!” Welcome to CampusDish at Morehead State University! Morehead State University, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.