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Meal time dilemma; college students demand healthy but choose tasty foods
Author(s) -
Frith Amy,
Sato Sakura
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.121.5
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , intrapersonal communication , meal , food choice , chose , healthy food , healthy eating , medicine , habit , healthy diet , environmental health , food science , psychology , physical activity , interpersonal communication , social psychology , social science , chemistry , pathology , sociology , political science , physical medicine and rehabilitation , law
College dining services and intrapersonal factors are crucial to college students’ food choices. The goal of this study was to identify college students’ perceptions of and reasons for choosing healthy or less healthy foods in dining halls. Perceptions of health characteristics of foods were collected by questionnaire from students (n=25) in a residential college campus. In another 88 students, self‐reported food consumption based on 21 food characteristics, types of foods, frequency of consumption and reasons for choosing those foods were collected for each meal. Students perceived healthy food to have these characteristics: fresh, fewer chemicals, more vitamins and minerals, high protein, and non‐processed. While many students (41%) reported choosing healthy foods “very often” or “always”, the majority reported that they demand healthy foods. Students (32%) primarily chose both healthier and less healthy foods for taste. Fewer students chose healthier foods for health (22%), and they chose less healthy foods because they were filling (13%), or it was a habit (7%). Females chose healthier food more often than males and freshman chose healthier food the least often. Future research should examine how to address the discrepancy of demand versus consumption of healthy foods, and to explore interventions utilizing promoting “tasty” with healthy foods.