The Impact of Food Insecurity & Disruptive

Eating Habits on College Students

Hungry for Success

By Nicole Margulis

NTR 300 Fall Online

Identity Changes in Young Adults

• Diets of young adults can change drastically upon entering college

• This is a result of changes in home life, schedules, and identity

• New challenge of balancing learning, self-discovery, while maintaining

quality nutrition

• These changes can be stressful and impact numerous health related

behaviors

• Young adults are at particularly high risk for weight gain and emotional

disorders

What is Disturbed Eating?

Behaviors include:

• Putting off eating to adhere to schedule

• Emotional Eating

• Binge Eating

• Night Eating

• Strict Dieting

In many cases, severity does not warrant formal diagnosis of an eating disorder

Still a problem for students

Sociocultural Pressures

• Living & learning in a new place creates new pressures to fit in

1. Body Image Perceptions

2. Accepted degrees of thinness

3. Mass media’s misleading beauty standards

4. Pressure to conform to peer group

5. Financial pressures of independent living and school costs

…and many, many more!

Chart courtesy of Hunting

University Study

Poor Nutrition

Anxiety

O.C.D.

Misuse of

Meds

Depressi

on

Irregular

Sleep

Excessive

Exercise

Low Self-

Esteem

The Nutrition and Mental Health Cycle

Understanding the Diets

of College Students

• Oregon State University’s

Website offers insight into

what full time students eat (or

don’t eat)

• Females are more likely to

lack fiber in their diets, while

males eat more fats

• Dietary practices of young adults in college fall short of nutrition recommendations

• Students often lacking in folic acid, calcium, potassium, fiber, iron, Vitamin C & A

• Though consuming excessive calories, they are not getting the nutrition they require for

healthy minds and bodies.

Nutrition Education & Psychological Services

• Continuous rise in mental disorders among college students over the past 70 years

• Continuous rise in obesity, disruptive eating & eating disorders in young adults

• High costs of personalized treatment for these issues prevent many from getting help

NUTRITION EDUCATION HAS THE POTENTIAL TO HELP!

What Do the Studies Say?

Study conducted in 2013 by Virginia Quick of Rutgers University and published

in The Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics:

• Measured the disturbed eating behaviors and associated psychological

characteristics of college students

• Survey conducted at three large public universities in the U.S.

• Measured:

1. Attempts to restrict food intake

2. Food schedules

3. Types of food eaten

4. Importance of body image

5. Stress levels

6. Influence of emotions on eating

Excerpt From the

Survey

Notably:

33.9% reported eating

fried food three to four

times a week.

Majority of students

stated they eat green,

yellow or red veggies

rarely or only once or

twice per week.

Females composed 63% of responses

Results Summary

• Many participants engage in disruptive eating practices

• 1/4 of women and 1/5 of men engage in restrictive eating habits due to

body image pressures

• 1/3 use food to reward certain behaviors

• 1/5 expressed moderate levels of depression

• 1/2 admitted to engaging in obsessive compulsive behaviors

• 1/5 experience severe anxiety

What Does It All Mean?

• A total of 2730 students of various ethnicities

completed the survey

• Age range of 18 to 26

• Study reveals that a substantial number of young

adults suffer from irregular eating habits and

psychological disorders

Education and intervention are needed!

Possible Solutions

• Findings suggest students would benefit from nutrition education

• Stress management skills and training for students

• Time management instruction

• Screenings for eating & emotional troubles lead to early intervention

Awareness. Education. Intervention.

Works Cited

Quick, Virginia M., and C. Byrd-Bredbenner. "Disturbed Eating Behaviors and

Associated Psychographic Characteristics of College Students." Journal of Human

Nutrition and Dietetics 26 (2013): 53-63. Archives of General Psychiatry. Web. 23

Sept. 2014.

Klampe, Michelle. "News & Research Communications." Study: College Students

Not Eating Enough Fruits and Veggies. N.p., 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/aug/study-college-students-not-eating-

enough-fruits-and-veggies.

Gower, Brittany, Christina E. Hand, and Zachariah K. Crooks. "Undergraduate

Research Journal for the Human Sciences." Undergraduate Research Journal

for the Human Sciences. N.p., 2008. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

http://www.kon.org/urc/v7/crooks.html.

Images Courtesy of Google Images