Freshman 15

Some university dining halls provide a place where students can endlessly indulge in high calorie foods such as pizza, fried food, and ice cream. When exposed to these meal locations, students are generally more likely to choose them over healthier options, which leads to weight gain, especially if fast food restaurants are more prevalent on campus than other restaurants.[9] A study done on 60 students at Cornell University showed that 20% of the weight gained by the test subjects was directly caused by the dining halls' all-you-can-eat nature.[10]

A 2004 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health concluded that “regular family meals provide an opportunity for the role modeling of healthy eating patterns and social interactions among family members, and may thus help to reinforce healthy eating patterns and prevent disordered eating behaviors.”[11]

In parental-supervised diets, students also usually ingest the proper proportion of foods from the different dietary groups; once removed from the parental dinner table, many college students do not eat enough fruits, vegetables, and dairy products.[12] This is because when students go to college, they face an independence that they usually have not experienced before. Many are forced to prepare/purchase meals themselves instead of having their parents cook for them.[13] Research has shown that over 60 percent of college students commonly ingest sugary and fatty foods like chocolate and potato chips in place of fruits and vegetables.[14] This explains why a study, conducted by Stephanie Goodwin of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, states that three out of four students don’t eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, denying students key vitamins C and E, as well as fiber.[9]

Students sometimes eat to deal with the pressures of stress. Stress may come from the pressures of unclear assignments, homework, and the transition from high school to college. Students entering college also may be making independent decisions about their diet, activity, and television viewing behaviors for the first time. New environmental and social factors might emerge during this time period and have a greater influence on students' behavior. When a student is stressed, the stress hormone cortisol is released, which can cause excessive eating.[15]

Social pressures also play a factor with college student's eating habits. If an individual is trying to diet, it can become difficult to stick to a diet when going out with friends to a restaurant or eating at the dining hall. One study (Pliner et al., 2007) found that social pressures have a powerful effect on how we eat. According to the researchers, individuals will often eat the same amount as those around them, especially when they are in a small group. This finding implies that when we eat, it is not as simple as eating until we feel full. Rather, we might under-eat or overeat depending on the company we are in. This suggests that we may eat similar types of food to those around us, making others’ unhealthy choices our own.[16] Much of this also comes from the transition from living at home to living on their own, which results in students not knowing how to properly eat on their own.

Most college students' activity levels significantly decrease over the course of college. This results in weight gain because students do not workout as much and become lazier in everyday tasks. Transitioning into college is the first time when students have to learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and manage time in their schedules for physical activity.[17]

College students must deal with many different changes in living conditions when it comes to dining.[18] In addition, college students have an above-average likelihood to engage in both recreational and pathological consumption of alcoholic beverages.[19] Many alcoholic beverages are known to have a high caloric content, which is another potential reason for weight-gain.[20]

The body has a certain number of calories that it needs to consume in order to maintain its weight. This is determined through height, weight, age, and several other factors, which differs from person to person. When a person takes in more or fewer calories than that set limit, weight is either gained or lost. Alcohol provides a large amount of calories in a small quantity of liquid, which tends to lead to unwanted extra calories.[21]

Vitamin B₁₂, shown here, is necessary to maintain human life.

When drinking alcohol on a regular basis, certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies can follow. Examples of these deficiencies are as follows:

• Folate: Folate helps to create and maintain new cells. Alcohol interferes with the intake, absorption, transport, storage, and release of folate.
• Vitamin B₁₂: Vitamin B₁₂ is required to make DNA and maintain healthy nerve and red blood cells. Alcohol has been shown to decrease the levels of B₁₂.
• Vitamin A: Vitamin A is needed for vision, regulation of the immune system, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and differentiation. Alcohol decreases the levels of this vitamin and increases toxicity when alcohol is consumed in large amounts.
• Calcium: Calcium is needed for blood vessel and muscle movement, for the secretions of certain hormones and enzymes, and for sending messages through the nervous system. Consumption of alcohol can cause a loss of calcium through urinary excretion.

These deficiencies can lead to weight issues caused by malnutrition. When consuming alcohol, these vitamins and minerals must be replaced. Often this is how certain cravings arise.[21]

About 1 in 4 college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing classes, falling behind, doing poorly on exams, and overall receiving lower grade.[22]

Students who are involved in fraternities and sororities in college tend to have the highest alcohol consumption rates.[22]

Researchers have found that those who consumed drinks of higher alcohol strength, ate significantly more than the others. Not only that, but they also chose to eat more fatty and salty foods. They also found that urges to snack were much higher among drinkers. Drinking alcohol also increases the body fat percentage.[23]

Students often turn to greasy and fatty food while drinking alcohol.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's research, people who tend to drink the largest amount of alcohol have the poorest eating habits compared to those who do not consume much alcohol at all. Those who do not drink a large quantity of alcohol seem to have the best quality diets. In this study researchers compared the Healthy Eating scores of 3,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with their overall consumption of alcohol. They used frequency, quantity, and average daily volume to measure the alcohol consumption.

The researchers found that as the alcohol quantity increased, the Health Index scores declined. As the frequency of alcohol consumed increased, the Healthy Eating scored declined. Diet quality was the poorest among those who consumed the largest quantity of alcohol. Care packages filled with unhealthy treats, sent usually by parents, is found to be the leading cause of weight gain. Those who drank less alcohol in an infrequent time frame had the best health index scores overall.[24]