Right nutrition is a must in college campuses
College life is an important phase where one develops habits and behaviours that will affect their lifelong food and lifestyle choices. Also, the transition to college from school poses challenges like stressinduced eating, nutrition becoming lesser priority, focusing on adjusting to new environment and handling new responsibilities.
Sandwiched between exam pressures, project submission deadlines, social life and club activities, college kids face difficulty in managing time effectively. Healthy eating takes a back seat and they tend to skip regular meals and make it up with high calorie snacks. On the other hand, there are those opting for fad diets to lose weight. All these can result in nutritional deprivation leading to fatigue, poor metabolism and hormonal imbalances.
Though some of the campus cafeterias offer healthy food options, they are limited in varieties and students turn toward convenience foods. A college campus hostelite in Dubai says: “We have shared kitchens on each floor. But a lot of us find it easier to order from the fast food outlets in the campus vicinity rather than preparing our own meals”.
There are campuses taking active interest in spreading nutritional awareness. One such example is Zayed University, Dubai Campus which has set up the ‘food revolution cluster’ led by Yunsun Chung-Shin, associate professor of graphic design. “Our objective is to turn UAE into a healthy destination and our activities are aimed at creating a positive change through a co-design approach. One of our initiatives is to bring healthy and sustainably produced food to the campus community, where students grow organic produce in the campus garden”.
The responsibility also lies with the parents to prepare their wards for healthy college life, during the teenage years itself. This can be done by teaching them to prepare nutritious and easy-to-make recipes and creating an awareness to make conscious food choices.
We have shared kitchens on each floor. But a lot of us find it easier to order from the fast food outlets in the campus vicinity rather than preparing our own meals” A hostelite Dubai
Our objective is to turn UAE into a healthy destination and our activities are aimed at creating a positive change through a codesign approach. ” Yunsun Chung-Shinhostelite associate professor, graphic design