Freshman 15

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Young men and women learn very quickly in their first semester of college that their new environment does not consist of a lot of parental guidance. It is a drastic change in lifestyle from what these young adults have been living with their entire lives. In this transitional period, students create their own rules, allowing them to eat or drink whatever it is that they want, whenever they want it.

Students are presented with an enormous amount food, and the most common reaction freshman have to this smorgasbord of nourishment is to eat as much as their bodies will allow. Making your own food choices for the first time allows a student the freedom to experiment and not eat as healthy as they may have if they were still living at home. The common choices made by new students are pizza and ice cream. They eat what tastes good to them, which is usually junk food.

What makes things worse is that they are not only consuming food with limited nutritional value, they are also eating in a higher volume than ever before. Meal plans that are designed by universities to give students control over their own diet. A common flaw found in having this format is that the meal plan is abused, and students begin overeating. It doesn’t help that most dining halls are buffet style. This layout gives students an endless amount of high calorie foods for them to consume, only further preventing students from having more of a structured diet. The human body cannot handle this abuse, which is why excess poundage is gained.

Having a class schedule that drastically changes day to day can result in meals being skipped. But people have to eat, so snack foods and unhealthy dishes that can be heated up in a microwave take the place of what used to be a nice salad and main course back in their parent’s home. Still the most impactful ingredient in every new student’s diet, is the large quantities of alcohol they are consuming. Potential binge drinking can be more damaging than any amount of pizza or hamburgers. Coincidently it is alcohol that attracts students to then greasy and fatty foods, putting a student’s body through the wringer.

The simple solution is for every freshman to take it slow, and ease into their new environment. Try and eat the foods their parents served them, and limit the snacks and sweets. Not giving into peer pressure can be a challenge but is necessary when it comes to taking care of your body. Exercise can be a fun social activity with new friends. From basketball to lifting weights, college campuses tend to have the facilities students need to stay healthy and in-shape. It is now up to these young adults to adjust and take care of themselves.

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