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Students’ adherence to dietary recommendations and their food consumption habits
The purpose of this 2018 study was to find out the extent to which university students adhere to dietary recommendations. Since patterns in food consumption are often related to habit behavior, this paper also covers the relationship between habit strength and food intake. The 103 study participants attended the University of Hohenheim, and were aged between 18-30 years. Questionnaires were used to measure the students’ habit strength for eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat, convenience foods, sugary and savory snacks, and drinking milk, water and sugar-sweetened beverages. Food intake was assessed two weeks later to make comparisons with dietary recommendations. The data indicated that most of the subjects failed to meet many of the dietary recommendations including for vegetables, fruits, milk, and fish. The recommended daily amount of vegetable consumption was achieved by only 4.2% of the men and 15.4% of the women. Fruit recommendations were met by 20.8% of men and 43.6% of women. However, the majority of the subjects ate sufficient levels of meat, eggs, oils, fats, and water. Concerning meat consumption, 95% of the students were eating 3-6 portions of meat or meat-containing products per week, and over 50% were consuming meat 3 times or less in a week. There were a couple of key differences in meat and oil intake levels among various BMI categories. Those who were overweight or obese were found to be less likely to meet the recommended meat consumption levels, but were more likely to ingest adequate amounts of oils. Habit strength showed strong correlations with the consumption of most food groups. Overall, the sample of university students appeared to find it difficult to adhere to dietary recommendations. More educational support may induce improvements in the students’ diets since habit strength is a strong determinant of food intake.
[NPID: behavior, dietary habits, healthy diets, students, university, Germany, fruits, vegetables]
Year: 2018
