Study Finds College Students Struggle With Nutrition

 Ashley Warren

JRN100 Staff Writer

At the beginning of college every year, Kimberly Pierce’s office floods with new students from athletes to those with allergies. She helps those who are worried about nutrition and determined to learn their way through campus dining. She says to be very successful with new students and that every student can benefit from her help. 

“Navigating a new location can be a challenge so I recommend all students with dietary restrictions come and meet with me so I can help with the process. That way, I can reach out right away and connect with them,” said Pierce. 

A registered dietician for over 25 years, Pierce has been Stonehill College’s campus dietician through Sodexo, Stonehill’s dining food service, for about 17 years and has a bachelor's degree of science in nutrition from UMass Amherst. 

A recent study, titled “College campuses' influence on student weight and related behaviors: A review of observational and intervention research,” said most college students do not meet dietary and physical activity guidelines and that the average student gains an estimated three to six pounds before graduation. 

Pierce said the first semester of the new year is always the busiest, as new students are coming to the college and require guidance on how to live on their own. Coming to college involves new classes, making friends, and adjusting to a new routine.

“I think nutrition is a piece of the overall healthy lifestyle puzzle for everyone, including students,” said Pierce.

She said she enjoys working with college students, finding them receptive to nutrition information.

She SAID SAID SAID the other pieces of the healthy lifestyle puzzle include mental health, physical activity, stress, time management, and sleep. She said these things influence each other in different ways for different people. 

The study conducted by Caitlin P. Bailey and her fellow colleagues dived deeper into the research of the relationship between nutrition and college students. 

The research took place in 2019, looking at college spaces, weight status, and weight-related health behaviors like nutrition, diet, and exercise. 

Bailey, who received her undergraduate at Wellesley College, said she realized she had a deep interest in nutrition and cultural norms when studying in China. She went on to earn her master’s in nutrition interventions from Tufts University, where she began her study. 

She was working with a group called Child Obesity 180 when she got involved with this research. 

The majority of those included in the study were sampled from predominantly white, female populations, and focused on dietary behaviors/nutrition.

A research assistant while in graduate school, also getting her master's degree, Bailey and a research team performed a large literature review to look at the amount of information about healthy eating, physical activity, and weight gain on college campuses.

Bailey says that she and her research team surveyed campus leaders and students on campuses to figure out the changes that occur on campus and their effects on student life, specifically the developmental stage of adolescents and how they become more autonomous.

Research done in this study has shown several environmental factors that college students perceive as influencing their diet, physical activity, and weight. These include unhealthy food availability on campus, food in student dorms, higher cost of healthy foods compared with unhealthy foods, access to an on-campus gym, and campus size.

“It was interesting to see how students struggling with nutrition and balancing a healthy lifestyle actually get help from their peer health education programs provided,” said Bailey.

Researchers found that students who lived off-campus and on their own were more likely to be overweight/obese and consume more alcohol than those who lived on campus or at home.

Bailey said the benefits of living on campus or at home result in the student having a set meal plan and meal security, and they tend to worry less about what they are going to eat.

Food insecurity is also a large factor in a college student’s nutrition. Research does not show a link between food insecurity and weight in young men, but food-insecure women have higher average BMIs than women who are food secure, according to the study.

“It’s assumed that you can just hit the ground running and take care of yourself, but I just don’t think that’s the truth,” said Bailey.

“It takes a long time to get anything published, there is still data about this study out there that we are still working on,” said Bailey, who is continuing her research as she works towards her Ph.D. at George Washington University.

For example, this study mostly focused on a white, female population. Bailey said that it would be interesting to compare the trends of men's and women’s eating habits. She said she suspects the results would be similar for incoming college men as for women.

Even though this study did not dive into the details of the male population she believes this is true for every single young adult coming to a college campus environment.

Pierce said she sees that both boys and girls can end up on one end of the spectrum who obsess about healthy foods, eliminating anything they perceive to be ‘unhealthy’. This disordered way of eating destroys our relationship with food. 

“Therefore students might not make healthy choices like eating regular meals or begin to over-focus on the healthy content of those meals,” said Pierce. 

She said every student has their own individual challenges in finding a balanced and nutritious diet that can help students maintain their energy levels, improve their concentration and memory, and overall college experience.  

“One piece of advice I give to students is to prioritize good nutrition! When we make time to fuel ourselves with healthy foods on a regular basis, we will have the energy to do well in the classroom as well as enjoy our time outside the classroom with friends,” said Pierce. 

A balanced and nutritious diet can help students maintain their energy levels, improve their concentration and memory, and overall college experience. As more research develops, the knowledge of college nutrition will continue to expand and progress.