Student team educates peers about nutrition and encourages healthy food and lifestyle choices
Step into any of the all-you-care to-eat, buffet style dining halls at Rutgers University and the choices are enormous. Unaccustomed to this cornucopia, many first-year students find they’ve sampled more than intended -- and unexpectedly gained a few pounds.
Yet it turns out that the legendary “Freshman 15” is a myth. A research study conducted a few years ago at Rutgers–New Brunswick by faculty members Peggy Policastro and Daniel Hoffman concluded that although three-quarters of first-years surveyed gained weight, the average gain was seven pounds, not 15. The study sampled 217 students campus wide.
“Students are in a new environment and have more freedom to decide when, what, and how much to eat,” Policastro says. In addition, students tend to return to the cafeteria line numerous times to sample foods and indulge in late-night munchies, and often are tempted by the oversized sandwiches available at Rutgers’ grease trucks.
“That first-year weight gain actually calculates to about 112 excess calories per day,” continues Policastro, a registered dietician who earned her master’s degree in applied nutritional sciences at Rutgers and has worked for the university for more than 20 years.
About 12 years ago, Policastro, a nutrition specialist for Dining Services and a faculty member of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, established the RU Healthy Dining Team. She employs eight undergraduate students, all majors in nutritional sciences. The team’s mission is to educate students about nutrition and encourage them to make healthier food and lifestyle choices.
Outreach includes a weekly Eating 101 newsletter, distributed in dining halls, recreation and health centers, and accessible on the Dining Services’ website; and live cooking shows featuring healthy recipes and nutrition booths set up in the dining halls.
Policastro also urges students to maintain a regular exercise routine.
Andrea Ficarra, a Rutgers junior and member of the RU Healthy Dining Team, recalls her freshman experience. “My biggest obstacle was realizing that I couldn’t eat everything that was offered in the dining hall,” she says.
Ficarra, 20, who had been active in cheerleading and dance at Passaic Valley Regional High School in Little Falls, New Jersey, soon noticed that she had gained a few pounds. “I wasn’t feeling well and my skin looked bad,” she recalls. “I evaluated my diet and realized that I hadn’t been eating many fruits and vegetables. I had been eating a lot of cheesy foods and high-calorie dressings and sodas.”
The nutritional sciences major remembers returning to the buffet for seconds, socializing with friends over late-night snacks, and having an extra dessert even after she was full. “I changed my eating habits by limiting my portions, adding fruits and vegetables to my diet, and not eating late at night,” reports Ficarra, who says she began to feel much better under her new regime.
A study of sleep habits at Rutgers–New Brunswick, conducted in 2009 by Policastro and Hoffman, yielded some telling advice. “The conclusion suggests that getting less than seven hours of sleep a night may contribute to a higher BMI or body mass index, specifically among female students,” Policastro says.
Ficarra, who plans to become a registered dietician, said she is concerned with what experts describe as an obesity epidemic in the country and with the health of fellow students. “I get a lot of positive feedback about our newsletters,” says Ficarra. “Students tell me how useful the information is.”
Like Ficarra, sophomore Dan Webb noticed a weight gain that first year. Webb’s initial priority at Rutgers was to make connections with students and meet new friends. “Of course, academics were a primary concern,” he says. “I wasn’t focusing on taking care of myself and going to the gym.”
A criminal justice major, Webb, 19, played high school football in Little Falls, NJ, a sport requiring him to work out four or five times per week. Creating a new exercise schedule while balancing academics and a social life became a challenge when he was adapting to college life.
“I got flabby,” reports Webb, who hadn’t given much thought to that extra slice of pizza, late night trips to the grease trucks, skipped breakfast, or his large consumption of food at mealtime.
Webb has recently altered his dietary habits and increased his exercise. “I’m trying to stay away from junk food and all-you-can-eat ice cream bars,” he says.
Policastro has observed a more nutrition-savvy student body in the past five to seven years. “We have seen an increased demand for healthier foods and those rich in antioxidants, phytonutrients and Omega-3 fatty acids,” she says.