Deshpande, Sameer, Michael Basil and Debra Basil. "Factors Influencing Healthy Eating Habits Among College Students." Health Marketing Scholarly 26.2 (2009) 145-164. Ebsocohost. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. Poor eating habits are an important public health issue that has large health and economic implications. Many food preferences are established early, but because people make more and more independent eating decisions as they move through adolescence, the transition to independent living during the university days is an important event. Numerous studies have shown that college students often have poor eating habits. Students tend to eat fewer fruits and vegetables on a daily basis\nand report high intake of high-fat, high-calorie foods.To study the phenomenon of food selection, the heath belief model was applied to predict the likelihood of healthy eating among university students. Numerous studies have shown that college students often have poor eating habits.

Boyle, Jennifer, Nicole Larose. "The Personal Beliefs, The Environment and College Students' Exercise and Eating Behaviors." American Journal of Health Studies 23.4 (2008) 195-200. Ebsocohost. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. College students are at risk for overweight/obesity. It was hypothesized that better nutrition and physical activity would be related to healthy environmental perceptions and personal beliefs.Sixty-five percent of American adults are overweight. The greatest increases in overweight and obesity occur in persons between 18-29 years of age.Eating habits are also a problem in both the general population as well as among college students. Only 28% of persons over the age of two are meeting daily recommendations for fruit intake and even fewer 3% are meeting daily recommendations for vegetable intake. College students often exceed the recommended daily limit for saturated fat intake. A study by Racette found that more than half the students in their sample reported eating high-fat fried or fast foods at least three times per week.

Jackson, Rebecca. "The relationship between lifestyle and campus eating behaviors in mal and females." College Student Journal 43.1 (2009): 860-871. Ebscohost. Web. 22 Nov. 2010.

Poor nutritional practices and heightened levels of stress, two common attributes of university life, are strongly linked with weight gain and decreased health. Little research has examined the relationships between university students' lifestyle factors and campus eating behaviours; therefore, this study aimed to examine relationships between lifestyle and campus eating behaviour. Both lifestyle and eating behaviour questionnaires were developed and administered to male and female undergraduate students at a Canadian university. Students whose living arrangements had not changed since high school consumed less alcohol than individuals who moved away from their previous dwellings. Fast food consumption was also significantly related to lower physical activity levels and higher expenditures for food on campus. Males also consumed more alcohol than females and spent more money for food on campus. Conclusion. Relationships do exist between lifestyle and campus eating behaviour. These results may be used as a foundation for future research on the effect of lifestyle on eating behaviours and nutritional status in university age student

Saules, Karen. "The contributions of weight problem perception, BMI, gender, mood, and smoking status to binge eating among college students." Eating Behaviors 10.1 (2009): 1-9. Ohio Link. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.\n\nCollege student participants completed a web-based survey assessing demographics, depression, anxiety, body image, cigarette smoking, and weight history. Among overweight participants, 42.6% of those who believed they were overweight admitted to binge eating, while only 30.1% who did not feel overweight did so. Among non-overweight participants, 43.2% of those who believed they were overweight admitted to binge eating, while only 32.9% of those who did not feel overweight did so. Weight Problem Perception mediated the contribution of BMI on binge eating outcomes, and WPP contributed significantly to the prediction of binge eating, beyond the risk conferred by established correlates of binge eating ( gender, mood, and cigarette smoking). Results suggest that when assessing risk for binge eating, a one-question assessment of whether or not an individual believes he or she is overweight has significant predictive power.

Lloyd-Richardson, Elizabeth. "The relationship between alcohol use, eating habits and weight change in college freshmen." Eating Behaviors 9.4 (2008): 504-8. Ohio Link. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.\n\nA group of reasearchers preformed a study that aimed to improve understanding of how alcohol consumption in college freshmen affects eating patterns before, during, and after drinking, as well as its relation to body weight change. They used \ntwo hundred eighty-two college freshmen (61% female; 59% Caucasian) completed measures of alcohol use, measured body mass index (BMI), and eating and activity habits before, during and following drinking episodes. Students were categorized by drinking status (non-drinker, low-risk, and moderate/high-risk) in order to explore group differences. There results were that moderate risk drinkers were more likely than low-risk drinkers to report increases in appetite after drinking, with nearly half of students reporting overeating and making unhealthy food choices following drinking. Moderate-risk drinkers also demonstrated significant increases in 1st semester BMI change, relative to non-drinkers and low-risk drinkers.\n\n\n\n

Dryden, Jim. "Study finds most students gain weight during early college years." Newsroom. Washington University, St. Louis, 5 September 2005. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. \n\nReporting in the Journal of American College Health, the research team found that about 70 percent of students gained a significant amount of weight between the start of college and the end of sophomore year. One researcher states that these results are not surprising to him because normally eating habits incollege students are not great. He also states that most don't eat five fruits and vegetables per day, and many don't get enough exercise. The average weight gain was nine pounds, but why they gained the weight isn't completely understood. \n

The food choices students in college make, could set them up for future health problems in the future. Research has shown that food served in dorms are comparable to food served in a fastfood restraunt. Fast food is attracting to college students because of a limited budget, easy access, and peer pressure because their friends are going to eat fastfood as well. Eating fast foods may have little impact on a teen or young adult's health in the short term; but more studies are showing that a poor diet during the teen and childhood years can set a teen up for health problems later '" including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Fast food may taste good now, but could be more costly later on.

On this opinion page for The New York Times, Stephan Dubner talks about the effects of having mandatory calorie postings for certain restraunts. He believes that because the calorie content is shown, people bought more food.