The Effects of a College Environment on a Students Health
Introduction
When one goes away to college, their life changes dramatically. They are forced to make changes in their own lives in order to adapt to college life. When one is in high school and living at home, their eating habits and personal hygiene practices are for the most part controlled by their parents. They are told what to eat and when to eat it. They are told to keep their room clean and to take their vitamins, etc. When one moves away to college, they are on their own. There is no one telling them to clean their room, or to do laundry or what they have to eat. In some colleges and universities, it is required that freshmen live on campus and eat at least two meals a day in the dining hall. This isn't necessarily for the university to monitor a student's eating habits but rather to get the student acquainted with the campus and other people living there. Food served in college dining halls has not been known for it's nutritional value. However, over the past couple of years college chefs have been working to change that. While a lot of students have committed to eating the healthier foods and trying to stay healthy, the vast majority lives on pizza and taco bell or any other cheap fast food chain that is open until the late hours of the night. College is a fast paced environment and fast food caters to college students. In this fast paced environment, students more often than not neglect their health and personal hygiene and the consequences range from obesity to deadly eating disorders.
"The Freshmen fifteen" is one of the most dreaded rights of passage into college. It is a well-known fact among college students, that one gains fifte...
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...ne's home life. There are so many opportunities including trying new foods, learning about different kinds of people, and learning how to focus in a fast paced, noise filled environment. While it can be hard to adjust to this new environment, it is a great experience that will cause one to become a more cultured and well-rounded person. Even the bad things mentioned in this paper, sickness, poor diet habits, etc.; these things can build character in a person. God gives everyone challenges in their lives and expects them to ask Him for the help they need. God gives people only what they can deal with. With God, anyone can deal with anything. He gives us challenges for a reason. When people take on these challenges, they become stronger and are able to deal with more of life's challenges that will come in the following years. There is a reason for everything.
...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.
While college students try to live their daily lives, many might not have the time to do as much as they used to do back in high school. Freshman college students could easily gain the “freshman 15.” There are so many ways to try and avoid gaining the weight. The most important way to avoid the freshman 15 is to eat healthy. Avoid consuming too many sugared drinks. And be sure to get plenty of sleep every night. Following all these steps could lead someone in the right direction of losing weight and not gaining the extra fifteen pounds. Just eat healthy and make good lifestyle choices throughout college.
Adversities are often given a negative connotation and view, as most consider them to be hurdles which impede progress. Nevertheless when taken in and accepted under a positive light, adversities can serve as stepping stones through which an individual can better their character. In the face of looming obstacles individuals who persevere come out of the situation as stronger, determined, and more hopeful for the future.
When you walk into the student union or the Keathly University Center some of the first things to catch your eye will be Panda Express, Chik Fil A and a few other chain restaurants as long with many small stores with and endless supply of snacks. These are the choices allowed to the students on campus. Where many live on campus and do not have transportation, or they do not have the financial support to go out, so they are forced to dine on campus. While it is any kids dream to have a famous chain restaurant like McDonald’s in their backyard the practicality of such is slim to none, but with the advances society has made it is not only a possibility but a way of life on a college campus. An alternative to these food choices should be available for students. Fast food is not healthy food and right now our health is a big factor in our grades. If you want to be successful in school than you have to make sure all other aspects of your life are also in order, your health being one of the most important. According to the Huffington Post they do not have enough healthy choices for us to choose from. If you give an eighteen year old the option to choose between a ...
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 ...
Students entering college for the first time become concerned with their college life. The students are on their own once they enter college. There are no parents or guardians telling them when to do homework, when to go to bed, or how to eat healthy. These students are now responsible for how they are going to succeed in school and meet their own needs. From the beginning, these students wonder what their experience is going to be like and are they going to handle the demands of college?
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...
It depends on what specific situation the student is stuck in to determine which foods they 're living off. My assumption of their daily meals is first, breakfast is one piece of fruit and a breakfast sandwich from a fast-food joint. Then, lunch or dinner is one entree of pizza, fried chicken, or a burger. Occasionally the student may snack off a bag of chips or a candy bar, but other than that, I can’t say that most students are eating healthy; I’ve seen at my college snacking mostly on chips while taking a break from class. Luckily, there some solutions to help to change the eating habits of the students. I discovered in Victoria Li’s article “Easy Diets for College Students” some helpful tips for the struggling students. She suggests “While opting for burgers fresh off the grill seems tempting, adhere to the habit of filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables, then filling the remainder with whole grains and lean protein” (2). In other words, it’s okay to have a greasy burger, but just as long you have something healthy to go with it, leading to a good balance of protein and energy Li says. As for the students going hungry because of their tight budget, some colleges or nearby locations may have meal donors. Li mentions in her article about the importance of not skipping meals as she says “Feeling famished due
Relevance: Weight problems are something a lot of people struggle with in college. I.E.; Freshman 15. And being healthy in college can really help people deal with other stuff better. Because when you don’t have to worry about your health you can focus on exams and homework more.
Many first-year college students face problems as they enter a new educational environment that is very different than that of high school. However, the common problem is that many first-year students become stressed. For many students, college is supposed to be the most fun time of their life; however, their fun can be restricted if it is limited by stress and other mental illnesses. According to the National Health Ministries (2006), stress is caused by “greater academic demands,” the feeling of being independent from family, “financial responsibility,” homesickness, being exposed to meeting new people, peer pressure, “awareness of one’s own sexual identity,” and the abuse of drugs and alcohol (p. 2). However, the causes of first year students’ stress mainly include academic demand, parents, finances, and peer pressure.
William Zinsser’s essay “College Pressures” emphasizes the struggles students have in trying to conquer the college milestone in life. Zinsser believes that college has lost the authenticity of the overall goal of gaining knowledge for one’s own interest, rather than the overall need of going. He sympathizes with struggles college kids go through and hopes to provide insight on the overall situation. One of his major points are that succeeding the first time is not always the best way in learning, and that sometimes students need to fail in order to properly learn. The author mentions the “Four pressures, economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure” and how there are “No villains; only victims” that fall
For some people college is where they are at their unhealthiest due to the lack of time and other
College for an incoming freshman is exciting, however, it is often focused on the social aspect such as the connections that can be attained through Greek life, parties and independence. Due to the social interactions, freshmen tend to drop out of college after their first year. Focusing on what college is meant for can prevent these situations. The pressures of college such as impressing parents, and maintain a high standard GPA-wise can lead to stress and freeze a student from achieving the proper academic performance. During the mid 1900s, college was considered more of a luxury than anything; people would attend college exclusively to acquire knowledge in hopes of obtaining a career after graduation. People in the twenty-first century, however, attend college to get away from home and enjoy freedom at parties. Education is taken lightly, and those who feel that education isn’t the main focus of college should not apply for sakes of the greater good.
People eat food every day without thinking twice about it, because it is a necessity for us to live. How often do you think about what is in the foods that you eat? How many calories does it have? Are there any vitamins and minerals in it? Is it high in fat? For most of us and especially college students who live a busy life on the go, the answer to that question is probably no. Since becoming a recent graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts, I have been more interested in food and what people are eating. Also since more young Americans are becoming obese I want to find out what they are eating and where. Going to college and seeing how students have poor eating habits I want to find out why they are eating this way. Is it because they are away from home for the first time? Or is it because that is the only food that is available for them? I also want to find out if students would eat healthier if it was provided for them? My hypothesis is that students eat unhealthy because it is more convenient for them. There is usually no time to cook a homemade meal and most college students are always in a hurry so it is easier to pick up takeout. Also most college students don’t know how to cook. I also believe that most college students don’t care if the food is unhealthy for them, as long as it tastes good. Hopefully, in the following pages I will uncover the wide world of college eating.
First semester of college, I was living in the dorms called Eaton, which is located next to a dining center and a “fast food” place called Clyde’s. For me, it was very easy to walk a half of a mile down the sidewalk to get something fast to eat. What I didn’t realize was how bad their food is for you and how often I made an appearance there. It wasn’t until winter break when I came home for a couple weeks and started to get back to my old ways of eating when my mom would prepare every meal, which would include some type of meat, potatoes, and fruits and vegetables. I never noticed how bad I was eating until I was home and started eating more responsibly. Luckily I moved to a different dorm where