For college students, the solution to the freshman 15 could be as simple as a daily message.
A study conducted by researchers from colleges around the U.S., including UF, discovered that message alerts may help students adopt healthier lifestyles.
The study, partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recruited students to participate in the 15-month-long Young Adults Eating and Active for Health research initiative.
More than 1,600 young adults, including UF students, contributed to the study.All participants were required to be college students between the ages of 18 and 24. The participants were divided into two groups of about 800. Both groups watched video and PowerPoint lessons on healthy habits.
Over the following months of the study, one group got email alerts while the other group did not.
The message alerts included information about the benefits of eating certain vegetables like tomatoes or what their portion sizes should be, according to an IFAS news release. The researchers found the students who received the message alerts ate more fruits and vegetables and were more physically active than the students who did not receive the alerts.
Kendra Kattelmann, the lead researcher for the study and a nutrition professor at South Dakota State University, said the researchers had to address other issues college students face, along with motivating the students to eat healthier.
Kattelmann said the researchers were more concerned about giving the students strategies to adopt healthier lifestyles in order to prevent weight gain, rather than being concerned about the students losing weight during the study.
“Throughout my day, I am never thinking about what I’m eating,” said Anna Morrison, an 18-year-old UF architecture freshman. “So, if I got a text saying ‘eat better today’ or ‘focus on drinking lots of water,’ I think I would definitely do that.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/17/2014]
