The objective was to examine differences of dietary pattern, physical activity and energy balance in 240 college students with 137 of them enrolled in California State University, Los Angeles (LA) and the other 93 enrolled in China Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan (TW). A three-day dietary record and a 24-hour physical activity journal were…

Research suggests that exposure to mass media depicting the thin-ideal body may be linked to body image disturbance in women. This meta-analysis examined experimental and correlational studies testing the links between media exposure to women's body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and eating behaviors and beliefs with a sample…

How aware are people of food-related decisions they make and how the environment influences these decisions? Study 1 shows that 139 people underestimated the number of food-related decisions they made--by an average of more than 221 decisions. Study 2 examined 192 people who overserved and overate 31% more food as a result of having been given an…

College obesity is increasing, but to the authors' knowledge, no researchers to date have evaluated risk factors in this population. Objective: The authors assessed whether abnormal eating perceptions and behaviors were associated with overweight in college students. Participants and Methods: A sample of undergraduates (N = 4,201) completed an…

Objective: In this exploratory study, the authors evaluated the impact of an elective college course on dieting levels, eating styles, and body image among college women. Participants: Participants were a convenience sample of 29 self-selected female students at a western university who were mostly white, normal-weight seniors with significant…

This study assessed how knowledge of soy protein and its relationship to heart disease influences the attitudes and practices of college students. Results showed that family members, schools, and newspapers were the primary sources of students' nutritional information. One fourth of the participating students answered at least four nutrition…

An assessment inventory (the Friend/Peer Support-Health Eating Physical Activity Scale-FPS-HEPAS) was developed to measure social influence patterns of college student physical activity and food consumption habits. Principal components analysis of 50 items with two referent sets (friends and peers) produced two scales with common factors:…

Lutein and zeaxanthin (L/Z) were related to macular health. With respect to increasing life expectancy, age-related macular disease (AMD) has become a concern on public health. The objective was to investigate dietary L/Z intake and its related food preference in populations living in different areas. A three-day dietary record and a supplement…

Objective: The authors' purpose in this study was to investigate the influence of knowledge of osteoporosis, attitudes regarding osteoporosis, and knowledge of dietary calcium on dairy product intake in both male and female college-age students. Participants: The authors conducted this cross-sectional study on 911 men and women enrolled in 2…

Few college students meet fruit and vegetable intake recommended requirements, and most receive no information from their institutions about this issue. The avoidable disease burden among students is large, the necessary information infrastructure exists, and "Healthy People 2010" objectives indicate efforts should be taken to increase intake.…

Stress-related mental health problems are among the most common and disabling medical conditions in the United States, and they have increased in frequency over the past 100 years. Lifestyle changes such as diet, sleep, activity level and the nature of modern stresses may all play a role in the increasing frequency of depression, and these changes…

Research on whether health education, specifically personal health classes affects behavior change is inconclusive. In this study, a sample of students from two large southeastern universities enrolled in a required personal health course and an elective personal health course were administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey…

Nourishing the young child can be a challenge. This stage of life is critical to the development of positive attitudes toward maintaining a healthy diet and learning to make reasonable food choices. Educators of young children are often the gatekeepers of child nutrition. This article reports on the current nutrient needs of young children,…

Restraint theory assumes that restrained eating is functionally equivalent to dieting and that "restraint" accounts for the eating behavior of overweight individuals. This study evaluated both of these assumptions. In the first part of the study, normal weight women were divided into groups of unrestrained nondieters, restrained…