Health and Human Services Professional Development

Stress and Food Choices Author: Melanie Burns Stress can influence eating patterns for college students, and eating patterns can influence college students’ satisfaction with how they handle problems (see  Cornejo & Cookston ).  Eating healthy does not need to end when you leave for college nor should it wait until you are through college.  While life stressors can make healthy eating less of a priority, making healthy food choices needs to happen every day. Little changes, such as eating breakfast and drinking low-fat milk, can make a difference in how you handle your weekly or daily stress.  The calories from the late-night pizzas and the all-you-care to eat dining hall buffets can add up quickly! For more information on making healthy food choices during the college years, visit the  USDA’s My Place On Campus . *Originally posted on the Career Skillet website (Permission granted by Jill Bowers).

Family Matters: How Family Meal Patterns Create LifeLong Habits by   Mikki Sherwood   on   September 15, 2014 ********************Melissa Crone, guest author As we grow out of adolescence many of the eating habits that were instilled in our childhood impact the choices we make as adults. These choices can define the quality of our lives.  For example, we have all heard of the health benefits of eating breakfast. Did you eat breakfast every day as a child? If you did, you are more likely to continue that trend even when you are responsible for waking yourself up, preparing the food, and cleaning up the mess. On the other hand, if most of your childhood meals were on the go, you are likely to repeat the pattern as an adult, grabbing food with little thought to the nutritional value. What does this mean? It means you are likely fall into patterns of eating behavior that match what you saw in your childhood home. If you did not eat meals as a family, sit and ...

Constructing Food Choice Decisions by   Jenna Carlson, Guest Author   on   September 27, 2014   Have you ever thought about how many food choices you have to make in a day? Eating is something that is required for survival and health, and is an activity that is repeated when making food choice decisions. Each time you eat it requires decisions including: what, when, with whom, how long, how, and how much to eat. It is estimated that most people make over 220 food decisions a day (Sobal & Bisogni, 2009). The course of your life includes events and experiences that affect your food choices now and in the future when deciding what to eat. There are also many influences that determine your food choices such as your culture, your personal values, and your resources. The food choices you make occur frequently and are complex, due to the need for survival, and the changes that occur personally and historically, so next time you grab a bite to eat, ask yourself wha...