POOR FOOD HABITS FOR BUSY COLLEGE STUDENTS JESSICA HAWS

TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction- 3 Beginning Reflection on topic- 4 Research Article 1: Balancing Healthy Meals and Busy Lives: Associations between work,shool and family responsibilities and perceived time constraints among young adults -5 Graph 1 -6 Research Article -7 Chart 2- 8 Concluding Reflection -9

INTRODUCTION American’s and their busy lives. I wrote a reflection on this and what social problems could be going on in the land of hectic schedules. I thought of cultural issues, dieting and weakening relationships, which you will see in the next slide. However, I felt the strongest toward the health issues busy people have. As I was researching I found a bunch of articles dealing with students, so I went with it. I picked this topic because I felt it related to not only me but a huge population. This PowerPoint talks about young adults in college, who have their whole lives ahead of them. Not all have the best eating behaviors (I can admit to this). Here are some articles and research I found… enjoy!

BEGINNING REFLECTION The topic for our upcoming portfolio paper is, what do you think about Americans and their busy lifestyles? This is something that I really have to stop and think about. I am an American and I do think I have a busy schedule. For me, I recognize social issues. Some issues I find in myself and others are unhealthy diets and daily activity, relationships in and out of the workplace, culture, education an there are many more. Americans like me don’t have enough time in the day. I am a student with two jobs, a pet, a boyfriend and a big family. I enjoy the outdoors and need to fit exercise in my schedule too. I play a lot of roles in my life right now. This being said, I feel like I don’t have the time to be a cook. I eat very unhealthy. Rarely can I fit 3 meals into my day. They are usually on the go. I think this is something other Americans can relate to. We are a nation with high obesity. Part of me wonder if they eat so poorly and don’t get enough exercise because they don’t have the time. Another thing I notice in American culture is that we don’t take time to actually think about the messages in the media. Most of the things we watch and hear are not sending out the best messages. This is what I already know and can come up with for busy American social issues. I’m excited to dive more into this topic.

BALANCING HEALTHY MEALS AND BUSY LIVES: ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN WORK,SCHOOL AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERCEIVED TIME CONTRAINTS AMONG YOUNG ADULTS. This article talks about the food habits of young adults. These young adults are students. The students were asked to take a survey about eating habits and time management. Almost 50% said they felt to busy to eat healthier and prepare meals. Over 50% said they had time-constraints. Their lack of time and time management skills pushed them to eat fast food and keep exercise as a lower priority. The article relates to my topic because it talks about the unhealthy eating habits of individuals with busy schedules. I thought this would be helpful because it is relatable to me and fellow classmates. Click link to view article:

This graph demonstrates that most students feel they can’t eat a well-balanced meal do to busyness. ONE OF THE SURVEY QUESTIONS FROM THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE. TO VIEW FULL TABLE CLICK LINK: 1/ 1/

6 BAD EATING HABITS YOU PICKED UP IN COLLEGE (& HOW TO FIX THEM) This article shows 6 bad food habits college students pick up. Some you would not even realize you are doing. It’s better to break a habit earlier than later. This article point the habits like drinking, skipping breakfast, too much coffee and more out and offers alternatives. I think it is doable and relatable to all students. I think this article is worth you time. Click the link below: college-how-fix-them

I chose to do my own little survey to see what the turnout would be. I asked college students if they felt they ate poorly do to busy schedules at school and home? Here are the results…. DO YOU EAT POORLY BECAUSE YOU ARE BUSY WITH SCHOOLWORK? Legend 1 Agree 2 Diagree 3 Inbetween

CONCLUDING REFLECTION I actually learned a few things I did not know about my topic, which was busy students and poor food habits. In my first reflection paper I talked about a few different social problems weakened relationships, child neglecting, poor messages in the media and health being one of them. I choose to stick with the health topic because that is an area I am interested in. While I was researching the topic I found a lot of articles using college students as the example. So I used them as my busy American. I know time management is a good skill to have. It helps organize your day so you get everything done that you need to. I never did think that this could apply to healthier eating habits. I don’t usually plan my day around eating. However, I learned why not? This way you can make smarter choices about what you eat. I’ve heard it is not healthy to snack in between meals. Snacking is not a meal but it is okay to snack. As long as you make healthier snack choices. Some examples are nuts, fruit, and vegetables and there are a lot of healthy granola bars out there. One of the articles I used spoke of 6 unhealthy eating habits college students have one of the 6 was coffee. I love coffee. I found 1-2 cups a day is okay. Although a better alternative to coffee is a green smoothie. This will have to be something I start trying. Again, I learned to find time to prepare meals, to have healthier snacks on hand an limiting my coffee intake. These are things I can work and are definitely do able for anyone.