Frankie Markiewicz

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1104

3/24/19

How Healthy are Students Eating in Dining Halls?

Almost every student has a meal plan at some point during their college career,

but are they eating the right foods? Are students eating the foods that benefit them not

only while they are in school but also for their future? Many colleges have been making

an effort to improve the food they serve their students mostly by adding new options.

However, colleges have also been trying to promote healthy eating habits to their

students. Students have now been a little more aware of the food they eat then they

have in the past but do they really understand how important it is?

Whether you’re a fan of the food in dining halls or not it will most likely be your

main source of food if you have a meal plan. When students go to dining halls are they

looking for healthy options? Does the school do a good job to label and let the students

know what is in the food? These are questions students and the administration should

be aware of. Students should start to look at the dining hall food before they even apply

to college. Many students are now starting to do this but not enough know of the

importance. In an article written by Bruce Y. Lee the executive director of the Global

Obesity Prevention Center he says ​“What you eat and drink in college can make a big

difference during college and well beyond. College may be the first time that you are
away from Mommy and Daddy and are making decisions about what to put in your

mouth on your own” (Lee 1).

Many surveys have been handed out to students to find out what is important to

them when picking out good food at school. They ask questions like, “Do you think

nutrition affects food choices” ​(Martinez, Roberto, Kim, Schwartz, & Brownell 3).​ ​You

would then pick from options like at least, sometimes, or not at all.​ ​The survey asked if

students look for nutritional labels and if they think it’s important that the school gives

the nutritional facts about the food. 96 percent of the students who took part in the

survey said they think schools should have the information available for students to look

at. It is explained in the article that the purpose of the survey was to report the use of

the menu labels, but also to inform and influence college and university policies. This

survey did a great job of finding student perspectives which should be the most

important thing to universities when deciding what to serve in their dining halls. A lot of

schools are still putting forth the effort to at least influence their students to try and eat

healthier.

An article titled ​“Positive Changes in Perceptions and Selections of Healthful

Foods by College Students After a Short-Term Point-of-Selection Intervention at a

Dining Hall” ​talks about a study done on 104 students to find the short term effects of a

point of selection intervention on students to see if their food selections in dining halls

change in a positive way. The school gave them a survey before and after the

intervention on their food choices in the dining halls. The intervention was basically just

the school talking to students about their current food choices and how they could
improve. They also put up posters around the campus to promote healthy eating habits.

The article explains that the intervention was​ ​“A multifaceted approach using a variety of

attention-grabbing approaches holds great promise for increasing intake of healthful

food choices among college students.”(Peterson, Duncan, Null, Roth, & Gill 2). Once

the students went through the intervention they were then given another survey asking if

their food choices have changed and how have they changed if they did. 20 percent of

the student said they did become more aware of what food they were choosing and felt

their eating habits had changed in a positive way. This is something all universities

should do. Doing something as small as putting up posters around campus that promote

healthier eating which will lead to influencing healthy eating habits to students.

Universities could also promote more physical exercise because it could help

influence students to pursue a healthier lifestyle. If students are exercising a lot they will

need food that will give them the proper energy to perform these exercises. Whether it

is working out during the week, playing a sport, or just jogging/walking every so often.

Being active throughout the week will help encourage you to want to eat healthy

because you will not reach your full potential if you exercise regularly then put unhealthy

foods in your body; you will just be holding yourself down.

Promoting healthy eating and exercise is a good way for universities to get their

students to eat healthy, but they could also change the way food is distributed to their

students in the dining halls. An article titled ​“Impact of trayless dining intervention on

food choices of university students.”​ (Rajbhandari-Thapa, Ingerson, & Lewis 1). This

was a study done to find out if taking away trays in dining hall made a difference in
students eating habits. This study did help reduce students getting more beverages

more than it affected food choices. Even though it did not do change much on picking

food, I think the idea of trying serving students in a different way is a great way to

change eating habits.

One voice I have not read much about is the people who make the food in the

dining hall. This perspective could be one of the most important in this whole

discussion. They can be the ones who decide if what the students or universities say is

factual about the food. I think whatever side the dining hall staff takes, whether they say

they feel the dining hall food is not good enough, or if they feel that they are not putting

enough healthy options out then that could mean a great deal. However, if the dining

hall staff says students are just requesting food that may be healthier but it’s just not

possible to make the food to the quality they like because of the cooking equipment or

skill of those working in the dining halls then maybe things should stay how they were. If

the dining hall staff can join the side of students and say that they don’t think the school

is putting the right effort to give them the quality food they need to feed the students or

even faculty who use the dining halls then that could be a huge step in making a

change. I would recommend students to talk with the staff in their dining halls and get

their opinion on the food or maybe get a little more information on what is going on back

in the kitchen. If they find issues with the kitchen not being properly cleaned or they find

mold on the food they can take pictures and even bring a worker to an administrator.

Then they should explain the issues they have and what is going on in the kitchen. They

could then state that these are unhealthy problems and want them to be fixed. Some
schools may not realize how bad their food is and think that they may not need to make

improvements.

From studies I have found on how healthy students are eating in dining halls it

has lead me to think that universities have been putting in more effort over the years

and students may just not be putting in the effort to eat healthier. What the university

can do now is just make sure they are showing their support for students to eat healthy

and to put up signs or have interventions like the one I mentioned previously.

Universities also need to properly label food giving all ingredients and label it as a

healthy food if it is. This will make the it easier for students to know what they should be

eating. Students may not be growing up in households that promote healthier eating

styles. This could be the first time that students are making these decisions on their own

which is why it is even more important that universities do all they can to make choosing

the right food as easy as possible. The universities could put programs in place to teach

students how to make the right choices when deciding what food they should eat. They

could hire people specifically to talk to students about the importance of obtaining

healthy eating habits. This is the time in their lives that will decide how they eat for the

rest of their life according to Bruce Y. Lee who says “​It is when you are potentially

programming some of your habits for life” (Lee 1). He says that after talking about how

this could be the first time their parents aren’t picking their food for them.

A study done on 35 students at Cornell University to find what students think ​was

what influenced them to make their dietary choices. This study was having students put

in six different focus groups to find the influences of the students eating habits. They
listed that some of the influences were “​time constraints, unhealthy snacking,

convenience high-calorie food, stress, high prices of healthy food, and easy access to

junk food” ​(Sogari, Velez-Argumedo, Gómez, & Mora 1). These are things students

should look at and consider before they start their college careers. Knowing what could

lead to bad eating habits can help because then you can prevent them before you start.

Colleges should make their students aware of what they can do to make getting good

eating habits easier.

The food in college dining halls has been improving allowing students to eat

healthy and know what is going into their bodies. Universities have been doing a good

job of promoting healthy eating and talking to students about what they could do to

improve their eating habits. There is still many things schools can do to improve even

more but it should not just be on the university but also on the students. If students

make the effort to pick the healthy choices then that can greatly benefit their future. If

students and colleges work together with colleges putting out the correct labels to show

what foods are healthy and also putting up posters to promote healthy eating that will

benefit the students. If students utilize the advantages that the schools provide then it

will be very easy for them to obtain healthy eating habits. Maybe not all students are

eating healthy right now, but if schools continue to implement these ideas then all

students using dining halls should be able to eat healthier.

 Works Cited

Lee, Bruce Y. “College Food Needs To Get Better, This PHA Initiative Is Helping.” ​Forbes​,

Forbes Magazine, 9 Sept. 2018,

www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/09/02/college-food-needs-to-get-better-this-pha-init

iative-is-helping/​.

Martinez, Olivia D, et al. “A Survey of Undergraduate Student Perceptions and Use of Nutrition

Information Labels in a University Dining Hall.” ​Health Education Journal,​ vol. 72, no.

3, 2012, pp. 319–325., doi:10.1177/0017896912443120.

Peterson, Sharon, et al. “Positive Changes in Perceptions and Selections of Healthful Foods by

College Students After a Short-Term Point-of-Selection Intervention at a Dining Hall.”

Journal of American College Health,​ vol. 58, no. 5, 2010, pp. 425–431.,

doi:10.1080/07448480903540457.

Rajbhandari-Thapa, Janani, et al. “Impact of Trayless Dining Intervention on Food Choices of

University Students.” ​Archives of Public Health​, vol. 76, no. 1, 2018,

doi:10.1186/s13690-018-0301-5.

Sogari, Giovanni, et al. “College Students and Eating Habits: A Study Using An Ecological

Model for Healthy Behavior.” ​Nutrients​, vol. 10, no. 12, 2018, p. 1823.,

doi:10.3390/nu10121823.