So What's the Issue?
All around the western world, people are compromising their health, vitality and longevity by living an unhealthy lifestyle. The unhealthy lifestyle of many westerners takes different forms, but in general it involves not getting enough sleep or exercise, being chronically stressed, and consuming the “standard american diet”, which consists of large amounts of processed and nutritionally-void fast food, as well as unbalanced and overly large meals composed of excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates, salt, unhealthy fats, and too few nutrient-dense foods such as fruits and vegetables (Lobb, Annelena).
Given the wide ranging nature of this situation, this site is not intended to tackle the problem as a whole. Rather, this website is intended to address the unhealthy lifestyle habits of college students in particular.
Many college students are falling victim to an increasingly common but unhealthy lifestyle, and this growing trend is affecting their mental and physical well-being (Racette,Sathyanarayana). In a time and place where accurate information pertaining to nutrition and physiology has never been more readily available than it is today, people still seem be more unhealthy and unhappy than ever before in the recent history of the Western world (.Pratt LA, Brody DJ). Case in point, a study from an article in the American Journal of Public Health entitled, "Weight Changes, Exercise, and Dietary Patterns During Freshman and Sophomore Years of College" showed a disturbing trend. It is stated, "At the beginning of freshman year, 29% of students reported not exercising, 70% ate fewer than 5 fruits and vegetables daily, and more than 50% ate fried or high-fat fast foods at least 3 times during the previous week. By the end of their sophomore year, 70% of the 290 students who were reassessed had gained weight (Racette).
Obviously, the reasons for this problem, as with any complicated issue, are individuated and multifaceted. However, it seems that the most prevalent reasons for the poor state of many American’s mental and physical health, and by extension that of UMD students, are fairly simple. What is not so simple is the solution to these problems. People have become accustomed to instant gratification without effort. They are overloaded and pressed for time, and they do not fully realize the benefits of a healthier lifestyle, nor do they understand the negative consequences of their poor lifestyle choices on their present and future well being.
When the reasons are considered together, it is no wonder that cheap, tasty, and convenient fast food, and quick-fix solutions solutions to mental and physical health problems win out over more nutritious and natural food, as well as more long-term, holistic solutions to mental and physical illnesses that are based on long-term lifestyle alteration. Because this problem is so far-reaching (Lobb, Annelena), it threatens to undo all of the potential benefits of living in the western world with plentiful access to healthy foods as well as the research to guide and inform healthy choices.