Eating behaviour and eating disorders in students of nutrition sciences

Abstract

Objective: Sometimes the suspicion is put forward that nutrition students show more disordered eating patterns, which may be among the motivating factors to study nutrition. At the same time, it is not clear whether the students' increasing knowledge about diet and nutrition is associated with a more healthy eating behaviour or with an unhealthy obsession with food choices. Design: Cross-sectional comparison of nutrition students from German universities during the first year of their studies (n 123) and during higher semesters (n 96), with a control group from other study programmes (n 68 and n 46, respectively). Dietary restraint, disinhibition, the tendency towards orthorexia nervosa and healthy food choices were assessed using a questionnaire. Results: Nutrition students showed higher levels of dietary restraint than the control group. Disinhibition and orthorexia nervosa did not differ between nutrition students and controls. Orthorexic tendencies were lower in the more advanced nutrition students. Healthy food choices did not differ among students in the first year. More advanced nutrition students showed healthier food choices, whereas the corresponding controls showed slightly more unhealthy food choices. Conclusions: Nutrition students, more than other students, tend to restrict their food intake in order to control their weight, but they do not have more disturbed or disordered eating patterns than other students. Moreover, during the course of their studies, they adopt slightly more healthy food choices and decrease their tendency to be obsessive in their eating behaviour.

Grocery purchasing among older adults by chewing ability, dietary knowledge and socio-economic status

“…The non-significant result for dietary knowledge is consistent with findings that suggest that extended nutrition education would have only limited effects on food intake (26) . The persistence of chewing ability and SES as predictors of food purchasing does not support the hypothesis of confounding by dietary knowledge.…”

Do Dutch nutrition and dietetics students meet nutritional requirements during education?

“…Moreover, it is known that dietitians estimate their energy intake more accurately than non-dietitians, suggesting that familiarity with and interest in keeping food records may lead to more reliable estimates of energy intake (30,31) . It is also known that nutrition students tend to restrict their food intake in order to control their weight more than other students (32) . Therefore we expect that under-reporting and underestimation was low in the present study.…”

Diferenças na percepção da imagem corporal, no comportamento alimentar e no estado nutricional de universitárias das áreas de saúde e humanas

“…Uma possível explicação a ser considerada é a de que um padrão alimentar anormal poderia ser uma motivação pré-existente para a procura desses cursos 8,9 , e alguns autores afi rmam que acadêmicos do primeiro ano geralmente apresentam maior risco de desenvolver um TA 7,29 , o que parece plausível no caso do presente estudo, já que as alunas entrevistadas ainda estavam cursando o primeiro semestre.…”

“…Entretanto, alguns autores afi rmam que, de maneira geral, estudantes de Nutrição em semestres mais avançados apresentam melhores hábitos alimentares que estudantes do primeiro ano, o que pode ser atribuído ao aumento do conhecimento na área 9 . Dessa forma, é de se esperar que, com o passar do curso, essas alunas passem a alimentar-se adequadamente, com consequente recuperação do estado nutricional.…”

“…Supõe-se que pessoas já preocupadas com o seu peso e imagem corporais podem optar por estas áreas justamente por já terem um interesse pessoal pelo tema 9 ; entretanto, essa hipótese ainda é controversa 7,8 .…”