Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2014

Capstone Advisor

Kay S. Bruening, Dept. Chair Associate Professor

Honors Reader

Jane Uzcategui, Instructor

Capstone Major

Nutrition Science and Dietetics

Capstone College

Sport and Human Dynamics

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Professional

Subject Categories

Comparative Nutrition | Human and Clinical Nutrition | Nutrition | Other Nutrition

Abstract

This project identifies the main issues seen in the dietary habits of college-aged young adults through a comprehensive literature review of studies on the topic. Roughly half of the research articles were obtained through Dr. Tanya Horacek, an associate professor in SU’s Department of Public Health, Food Studies, and Nutrition, who has done research on the college diet and factors that affect the college diet. Other studies were obtained via scholarly journals including, but not limited to the Journal of American College Health, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and the Journal of Exercise Physiology. Major problems in college aged students’ dietary habits included failing to meet nutritional recommendations for healthy adults, heavy alcohol consumption, and skewed nutritional beliefs. The collective methods and limitations of these studies are addressed.

As a creative component, the blog Books and Bruschetta: Cooking my way through college was created using wordpress.com as a formatting template in the fall of 2012. Recipes were researched for health, cost, and feasibility before 2-4 were chosen each week to be made and posted to the blog. Blogs included a short story or anecdote, a recipe (including a list of ingredients and detailed directions), a nutrient analysis for a serving of the dish, and pictures. During the spring of 2013, while abroad in Florence, Italy, posts included a story, a description of the food eaten in a day or on a trip, a nutrient analysis of the dish if possible, and pictures.

Books and Bruschetta is currently composed of one hundred fourteen posts and still growing. The blog has the potential to fill certain gaps found in the literature on the dietary habits of college-aged students. These include increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, as well as increasing dietary variety with over seventy blog posts containing recipes and motivation for incorporating different fruits and vegetables into the diet. Books and Bruschetta: Cooking my way through college has the potential to be a critical tool in lowering the perceived barriers to healthy eating for college-aged students and changing the way they think about nutrition for the better.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.