IF YOU DO ONE THING THIS WEEK. . . Keep the new colege routine healthy
Around the country many students are settling into college life for the first time – and freshers may thank themselves in the long run if they keep their new habits healthy.
A pilot study of 120 students, mostly undergrads and not in their first year, carried out by Dr Mary Rose Sweeney and colleagues at Dublin City University found that 58 per cent of participants reported that they had gained weight since starting college.
More than 40 per cent said they were exercising less, and around the same percentage felt their diet was less healthy. Meanwhile, almost 60 per cent reported an increase in alcohol intake.
"These results indicate that entry into the third-level education system may indeed be a critical point in the pathway to a less-healthy lifestyle and diet as well as a shift in weight status towards overweight and obesity," write the authors in an abstract published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.
– CLAIRE O’CONNELL
