45I-17 |
Nutrition and exercise habits of students in an introductory nutrition course |
J. A. DRISKELL and D. W. Giraud. Dept. Nutritional Science and Dietetics, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0806 Little information has been published on the nutrition and exercise habits of college students. Information on these ever changing habits is important in nutritional counseling. Our objective was to determine whether gender influenced the nutrition and exercise habits of students taking an introductory nutrition course at a large midwestern university during Fall, 2000. Volunteers responded to a 2-page written questionnaire. The subjects included 71 men and 231 women, 84% of whom were 19-21 years of age, with about half living off campus. Breakfast was reportedly consumed by 52.7% of subjects, lunch by 90.4%, dinner by 94.7%, and snack(s) by 78.5%, with no differences by gender. Subjects reported eating the following mean number of servings by food group on an average day: grains (bread, cereal, rice, & pasta), 4.4 servings; fruits, 2.3; vegetables, 1.9; dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese), 3.1; protein (meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, & nuts), 2.6. Men consumed significantly more (P<0.05) servings of the dairy and protein groups than women. One-third of the subjects reported taking a vitamin/mineral supplement on a regular basis. Sports and a herbal supplements were taken regularly by 7.6% and 5.6% of subjects, with significantly more (P<0.05) men taking than women. Men reported participating in strength training/conditioning and recreational (intramural sports, golf, bowling) significantly more (P<0.001) often and for significantly more (P<0.001) minutes in a typical week than women, but were similar for aerobic activity. Over half of the subjects participated in each of these activities less than 30 minutes weekly. These results suggest that differences exist for college students by gender for consumption of dairy and protein foods, the taking of sports and herbal supplements, and the number of times and amount of time spent doing strength training/conditioning and recreational exercises. However, the average subject, independent of gender, failed to meet grain and vegetable group and aerobic exercise activity recommendations.
Session 45I, Nutrition: General
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