Exploring University Students' Perception of Healthy Eating and Food Essay

Exploring University Students' Perception of Healthy Eating and Food Consumption - Essay Example It is widely known that about 8% of students in the university ate at least five meals of either fruits or vegetables daily (Roosen et al., 2011). This trend is even worse among the third and fourth year students at the university. There is a strong correlation between demographic and psychographic physiognomies with food consumption behaviour among university students. The dietary habits developed in the first two years at the university are carried on to later years in the university (Dunn, 2013). Student’s residences have also been found to affect their dietary habits. For instance, off-campus students were reported to take healthier foods than those living within the campus (Brown, 2014). A healthy eating habit is vital to good health throughout a person’s lifespan (Tseng, 1981). Despite the knowledge imparted in populations on the benefits of healthy eating, unwarranted consumption of food is prevalent especially among the adult population (Lindgreen & Hingley, 200 9). Previous works indicate that female students have a tendency towards fatty foods as compared to their male counterparts. However, fruit and consumption levels across both gender is the same (Shield, Mullen & Association, 2002). According to a study conducted by Tseng (1981) on the eating habits of students in California public schools, female students tend to avoid some food types especially junk owing to worries associated with body weight, beliefs and fitness. On the contrary, male students reported insignificant concern about weight and had no problem consuming junk food (Scaffa & Reitz, 2013). Therefore, it was evident that the choice of food type for male and female students was dictated by a number of... This report approves that to achieve such efforts there is need to develop projects aimed at imparting positive eating habits and creating awareness and attitudes towards appropriate diets. Such projects should aim at nurturing health eating habits among university students. Further, stakeholders owe to develop mechanisms that would ensure availability of adequate resources and healthy food types within the reach of college students in an effort to eliminate barriers of cost and availability impeding healthy eating habits. Lastly, there is need for a comprehensive partnership between the university’s catering departments with suppliers to ensure that shortage of specific food commodities is eliminated. There is also a need to create awareness regarding healthy choices of food through food exhibitions and demonstrations among the university students. This essay makes a conclusion that the findings of this research are based on the personal views of participating individuals within the focus groups. The views sampled from these groups may not reflect the views of the entire university populations. Each individual has his/her own identity and perception of food choice. In addition, identification of themes and cohesions was a big challenge in conducting this research. This was because the research was based on a relatively low sample considered. Time constraint was another challenge that faced the research process.