Fuel up: Examining the Eating Habits of College Students at University of Guam

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Eating habits are a prime indicator for identifying nutritional and health status. This studyexamines the University of Guam (UOG) undergraduate students eating habits. According to Kurubaran et.al, he describes college students as “…nutritionally vulnerable groups…[because of the] Rapid changes in [their] physical growth and psychosocial development…”(1). For freshman and sophomore college students, they will be categorized in this study as adolescents. Thomas et.al, from World Health Organization (WHO) explains that “Adolescents [aged 10-19] are usually open to new ideas; they show curiosity and interest…[therefore]…with increasing age, adolescents’ personal choices and preferences gain priority over [their] eating habits acquired in the family, and they have progressively more control over what they eat, when, and where” (“Nutrition”). This means that during our early childhood years, our parents and/or guardians would normally cook meals for us. Therefore, they were able to regulate and be held responsible for our eating behaviors. However, now that we are significantly older and attending the university, many college students for the first time is able to make his/her own dietary choices. This studyexplores and determines which variables: parental households, prevalence of fast foods, media, or their peers affect and influence the most with UOG students’ nutritional choice. At the same time assesses whether UOG undergraduate students are eating healthy or unhealthy food.
The definition of healthy and unhealthy varies across individuals. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this study, I will apply the definition of healthy from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. USDA defines health...

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...ont of Crumbs & Cravings. My observation took 40 minutes. Based on it, I noticed that most of the UOG students had a bottle of water on their table or they are carrying it with them. This implies that many UOG students are aware and recognize the health benefits of drinking water such as to stay hydrated and reduce their calorie intake. However, there are still some students that purchased one or two cans of Mr. Brown coffee and drank a Monster, Rockstar, or Redbull Energy Drink. Caroline Spivack, an undergraduate student from Mt. Holyoke College, describes caffeine as “…the lifeblood of college students…[and that] Regardless of how it’s consumed, caffeine and college students share an intimate relationship.” In my opinion, I agree with Spivack that caffeine helps college students to stay awake and pull an all-nighter especially during mid-semester and/or final exam.

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