Harper College/Student Success/Self Care/Nutrition

Self Care: Nutrition For The Everyday College Student By: Rachel Frances Ward

Self-care in college students is probably the least most topic among college articles or the topic of college itself. With hundreds and thousands of articles on college students, self-care isn't a big one. Self-care, in regards to college students, is the most important. Not only mentally, but physically college students do the most to their bodies. Not eating the proper meals, downing energy drinks (and shots), staying up all night, and could overall just be homesick and not happy. This topic is one that we as college students relate to on the daily. Whether you go to a university or just a community college, college can be difficult not only mentally but physically. It is important for us to not only take care of yourself but make sure the others around us are taken care of as well. Despite the massive amounts of homework, binge drinking and restless nights we get. It is already important that college students are getting the right amount of nutritional supplements in their daily lives, but the majority don’t. It’s important to be aware of how we as college students eat and be nutrition daily, and it’s a topic that we should be talking about and needs to be addressed. We as individuals want the best college experience as possible and by taking the time to read this, it might overall better yourself for the rest of your college experience.

College students all over the country suffer from lack of sleep, nutrition, and hydration. As a community college student myself, I’ve learned how to deal with the sleepless nights, but not so much have I researched or learned about how nutrition and self-care affect college students like me on a daily basis. According to bestcolleges.com, poor eating is also associated with lower grades, susceptibility to illness, and increased fatigue. Other side effects include a higher risk of depression, anxiety, irritability, difficulty concentrating, menstrual problems, and sleep disturbances. College students don’t get the required amount of vitamins and minerals throughout their daily eating routine, due to the availability of dining hall delights and fast food restaurants. Learning how to cook could be beneficial to the average everyday college student and can benefit your health in the long run, and no I’m not talking about microwaveable mac and cheese. A study from the Oregon State University states that “Still, even accounting for fewer meals consumed, the students were on average not always eating even one serving of fruits or vegetables per day, far below the USDA guidelines ”(2018, page 3). College students don’t consume the daily supplements of vitamins and nutrients from healthy foods, which can benefit our health in the long run. Pretty crazy right? Another study shown from OSU stated that when people prepare food at home they tend to eat better and consume fewer calories. Which makes sense because not only are mama’s meals made from love but of ingredients that make us feel good and are good for us. Poor eating in college students is nothing new or out of the ordinary. Luckily if you’re a community college student like me I live at home and have the availability to fresh food. Students who go to 4-year universities tend to eat from the dining hall and drink four out of the seven nights a week. We all know we’re broke college students, and most don’t really have the resources, funds or time to make a fresh healthy meal with all that’s going on. Here’s some food for thought for the girls. According to an article by money crashers, college freshmen girls gain an average of nearly eight pounds during the school year, most of it in their first semester. It’s scary to see the statistics of a topic that girls and even guys are not comfortable talking about, this comes to the term “Freshman 15”. New York University (2015 pg.1) found that 14% students are considered overweight or obese before entering college, 17% are overweight or obese by the end of that first year. Um NO thank you am I right? Gaining weight is the last thing us ladies (and gentleman) want to do, especially getting an education to go into the real world. So you may ask how should we change? Well, an easy option is to DRINK PLENTY OF WATER! Water is a key source in our bodies and diet when it comes to staying hydrated states the USDA. An article I came across by money crashers stated the 5 best ways to eat healthier in college. The 5 keys to maintaining a healthy diet in college students follow suit, Knowing how to budget your money, have healthy snacks on you or in your dorm, avoid late night snacking and dining, eat superfoods that are low in price and lastly go with the basics when going out to eat. Superfoods are a source of cheap, well tasting foods that every college kid can afford. For example, Rice, beans, oatmeal, avocado, peanut butter, and apples are cheap, and well-tasting foods that are good for your health.

If you’re a 4-year university college student you know that partying is the scene in college. Bars, Formals, Semis, and the notorious fraternity parties cause most college students to drink themselves into oblivion. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism did a survey on college students and it stated that more than 60% percent of college students ages 18-22 drank in the past month (2018, page 1). So you may ask, what does this have to do with nutrition and health? Well, more than 25% of College students gain the majority of their weight in college by binge drinking. Heavy drinking in college can lead to health problems including liver damage, brain damage, and alcoholism. Which in the long run, you’re pretty much slowly killing yourself slowly the more binge drinking you do in college. So if you’re a 4-year college student at a university, try cutting back on the drinking and realize that it could benefit your health in the long run and in the end, can save yourself from long term damages. It’s NOT worth it!!!

Nutrition is a beneficial key into us human beings, most importantly the youth! Eating is what fuels our bodies every day if you think about it. Why fill up your stomachs with junk food and mass amounts of alcohol when you can balance not only both but add foods to your diet that can benefit you in the long run. Self-care is a topic most don’t seem to talk about especially in college. Since we’re college students are worrying about tests, exams, quizzes and just the overall thought of passing and getting a degree, we don’t think or research much about how nutrition and self-care affect us as individuals daily. During this stage in our lives, we should be taking care of our bodies the most for a better outcome in the future. Making sure what we put into our bodies we get good out of them. With this being said, take the time to read this article and understand the importance of nutrition in college students to better understand what we as students need to do to change the health of not only yourself but college students all over the country.

References

Writers, S. (2018, September 04). The Student's Guide to Nutrition - Best Colleges. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/student-nutrition/

Abraham, S., Noriega, B. R., & Shin, J. Y. (2017, March). College students eating habits and knowledge of nutritional requirements. Retrieved 2019, from http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/college-students-eating-habits-and-knowledge-of-nutritional-requirements-9188.html

Life at OSU. (2011). Study: College students not eating enough fruits and veggies. [online] Available at: https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2011/aug/study-college-students-not-eating-enough-fruits-and-veggies [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019]. https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2011/aug/study-college-students-not-eating-enough-fruits-and-veggies

Abraham, S., Noriega, B. R., & Shin, J. Y. (2017, March). College students eating habits and knowledge of nutritional requirements. Retrieved 2019, from http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/college-students-eating-habits-and-knowledge-of-nutritional-requirements-9188.html