It’s midnight, and you’re craving a little something. You look around your room and spot a bar of chocolate. You reach for it and devour the entire bar in a minute.
Sound familiar?
College students are arguably the worst victims of unhealthy eating: chocolate, ice cream, pizza and the like. I realized this during the third week of my first term as a University student when I came back to my dorm room to find my trash can filled with my roommate’s Reese’s chocolate wrappers. One time when she pulled an all-nighter, she consumed 900 calories of chocolate within 24 hours.
Freshmen are particularly prone to developing bad eating habits. Adjusting to dorm life, cranking out those late-night papers and navigating your way through new relationships can all make you give in to those unhealthy munchies. It doesn’t help that Common Grounds has delicious smoothies and coffee, the Grab n’ Go has assorted candy and Carson Dining serves Whammies.
Determined to find more about college students and junk food, I talked to three University freshmen: Natalya Jenney, Daina Tague and Souvanny Miller:
Why do you think college students easily cave into their guilty pleasure foods?
Jenney: Stress, because of self-esteem issues, which are a reality in college without your parents’ protection and unstable friend groups, especially as freshmen. On campus, it’s also easier for people to overeat with meal plan points because you don’t feel like you’re spending money and you want to use up your points. Also, sometimes I skip meals because of classes, so I just end up snacking.
Tague: I feel like now that I’m away from home, I don’t have my parents monitoring my eating habits. Also, I stay up later here than back at home, so I have those extra hours of being hungry even after dinner.
Do you think students should be allowed to eat sweets like chocolate?
Jenney: Chocolate should always be something that people, specifically girls, can get their hands on, because it is scientifically proven to make them happier. But healthy foods also show better performance in education, which is why healthier foods like cut-up apples should be sold at cheaper prices by the school in more convenient locations. Because you’re in a new environment, students’ comfort food should be available because it makes college more enjoyable. But having chocolate for, say, breakfast, is not good.
What’s your guilty pleasure food?
Jenney: Hershey’s chocolate. I go to the Duck Store to buy chocolate bars, especially when I’m on a period or feeling down.
Tague: Right now, it would be Nutella. I eat it very often, especially with pretzels; although, I never really had it back home. My mom bought it only once. Nutella is chocolatey, and you can put it on pretty much anything — bread,
bananas.  It’s very versatile.
Miller: Chocolate is my guilty pleasure food. It makes me feel better, and it tastes so good.
How often do you consume guilty pleasure foods?
Jenney: I get about five smoothies a week, including the caffeinated Mocha Madness they have at Common Grounds. And I get about two Whammies and two cups of coffee. I go to Carson Dining about twice a week, and it’s definitely where I go to eat ice cream and pizzas.
Tague: I go to Carson about four times a week, and I eat so much dessert whenever I go.
Miller: Three to four times a week unless I have chocolate in my room, in which case I’ll have it every day on the hour. I tend to eat chocolate right after I work out, in between classes or if I’m in a bad mood.
Would you consider yourself a victim of unhealthy food?
Jenney: Yes, I am definitely a person who snacks unhealthily when she studies. I’ll go for chocolate when I’m feeling moody, which has its pitfalls sometimes. I’m definitely a comfort food hoarder.
Tague: Well, more during the first term than now, because I made a New Year’s resolution to be healthy. I still get bad food, but I’m trying. For example, I had oatmeal for breakfast today, which is better than a scone.
Miller: Yes. Sometimes I think I should stop eating chocolate because it’s unhealthy, but I just can’t stop. And it doesn’t help that my roommate has the same problem.
What do you think of the campus food? Is it healthy?
Tague: It depends. The dips, for example, are not healthy. But you can get salads or fruit. But then again, there’s the ice cream, the candy bars. It’s healthy only if you choose to make it healthy.
Miller: Dorm food doesn’t make me eat unhealthier, and there are healthy options. I get more pizza, though. But I don’t get cookies or doughnuts, because I just eat lots of ice cream and chocolate. Sometimes the ice cream and chocolate is my meal and replaces dinner. But I do that at home, too.
What do you think the University should do to prevent students from falling into the junk food trap?
Jenney: They should put up more advertisements for healthier eating.