Awareness on balanced diet and eating practices among college students Type of manuscript- survey articleRunning title- Awareness on balanced diet and eating practices among college students Swetaa.AUndergraduate student Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha university Chennai,India.Mrs.Gayathri.
RAssistant professor Department of Biochemistry Saveetha university Corresponding authorChennai,India.Corresponding author-Email- [email protected] number- 9566047924Author name- Swetaa.A Guide Name- Mrs. Gayathiri.R Telephone number- 9710680545Year of the study- I BDS 2017-2018Total no.of words- 1000Abstract-Aim- Awareness on balanced diet and eating practices among college students Materials and methods- Questionnaire was prepared and survey was conducted among college students about balanced diet and eating practices and data the was collected. The survey was prepared on survey planet and was circulated among students.
The survey was conducted among 110 students. Result- 82.4% of the college students are already aware of balanced diet. Most of the college students say that snacking is always junk and fast food , but still they wanted to maintain a balanced diet to stay healthy .So many students are aware of balanced diet but eating practices are not proper.Conclusion-There survey was conducted among 110 students from that most of the college students are aware of balanced diet but still consume junk as their snack which is about 59.6% and have unhealthy eating practices. I think they should consult a nutritionist so that they would attain a balanced diet.
Key words- Balanced diet, eating practices, college students, nutrition. Introduction- A balanced diet is one that provides the body with all the essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals required to maintain cells, tissues and organs as well as to function correctly and to attain healthy diet. A diet that is lacking in nutrients can lead to many different health problems like tiredness and lack of energy to serious problems with the function of vital organs and lack of growth and development.The number of calories in a food is a measurement of the amount of energy stored in that food.1 Your body uses calories from food for walking, thinking, breathing, and fatigue, and poor performance. Children with a poor diet run the risk of growth development problems and poor academic performance, and bad eating habits can persist for the rest of their lives.Dietary Habits are the habitual decisions of individuals or group of people regarding what foods they eat. Proper dietary choices require the consumption of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
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2Milk products play a major role in balanced diet .An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases including: pressure diabetics , abnormal blood lipids, overweight/obese , and cancer6. There are two therapy’s one is the dietary therapy to maintain a good and a healthy life other one is medical nutritional therapy and we have also traditional Chinese method.In addition to dietary recommendations for the general population, there are many specific diets that have primarily been developed to promote better health in specific population groups.At the core of a balanced diet are foods that are low in unnecessary fats and sugars and high in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.3In addition to dietary recommendations for the general population, there are many specific diets that have primarily been developed to promote better health in specific population groups, such as people with high pressure blood (as in low sodium diets or the more specific DASH diet), or people who are overweight or obese (in weight control diets). However, some of them may have more or less evidence for beneficial effects in normal people as well.
4A balanced diet is one that provides an adequate intake of energy and nutrients for maintenance of the body and therefore maintains good health. A diet can easily be adequate for normal bodily functioning, but still it is not a balanced diet. An ideal human diet contains fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, water and fibre all in equal proportions. These proportions vary for each individual because everyone has different metabolic rates and levels of activity.16 Malnutrition results in unbalanced diet, this can be due to an excess of some dietary components and lack of other components, not just a complete lack of food12. Too much of one component can be as much harm to the body as too little. Deficiency diseases occur when there is a lack of a specific nutrient, although some diet related disorders are a result of eating in excess.
An adequate diet provides sufficient energy for the performance of the body to function.7 Carbohydrates, fats and proteins provide energy. Proteins are a provider of energy in an emergency, but are primarily used as building blocks for growth and repair of many body tissues. We also need much smaller amounts of other nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. Despite the small quantities needed these are essential to provide a healthy diet.5Discussion and results- Discussion- The discussion covers various aspects of the students diet and their eating practices the students who are aged between 17-23 are very much aware about balanced diet but still their eating practices and physical and mental well being is not good. They consume more junk during their college break that is about 59.6%, but still most of them don’t exercise.
But most of them are very much concerned about their balanced diet during the examination. Our society is experiencing lots of diseases, so one should maintain balanced diet and eating practices to remain healthy. From this survey the students are most stressed during their college life so that do not attain balanced diet and their eating practices are very poor most of them have only 2 meals per day which bad for the health.
Intake of water is almost equal but intake of nutritional food is less about 30% junk consuming students are high 59.6%. Most of them prefer potatoes as their favourite vegetable but potatoes contain high amount of carbohydrates and fats which unhealthy for an individual. 33% of them eat chips during their break most of prefer chips rather then fruits and nuts. But still 20% of them consume fruits during the break which makes them to attain balanced diet when even though their eating practices is less. When the students are highly stressed headaches becomes a major problem for them which is about 39.4%. They become stressed and have lack of confidence in their college life that is fear of facing difficulties in academics, extra curricular activities and other college activities.
BMC health survey article says that the balanced diet and eating practices are very much different among students they say most of them attain a balanced diet. But in my survey I concluded the students have a unhealthy balanced diet because the consumption of junk and their eating practices are very poor. Other articles conclude that balanced diet among students are very less because they have a daily routine life which makes them to lack dietEven I conclude the same stress among college students are very high so they don’t take any efforts to maintain a balanced diet. 11Conclusion-The main aim of this survey is to conclude balanced diet and eating practices among college students is very poor because the stress in their academic life makes them weak so their appetite becomes less. Most of the college students are aware of balanced diet but still fail to attain which is about 82.
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