The dangers of dieting culture on college campuses

Sean Dalton is a sophomore biology major on the pre-med track at Quinnipiac University. He has struggled with his weight since high school. 

“There was a lot of stress from being underweight coming into school that made me feel like I needed to eat more to gain more,” he said. “No matter what I did I could not put on the weight I needed, and it was really hard. While in college something changed, and the weight finally started to stick.”  

But soon, that weight gain started to have the opposite effect.

“Since coming into college I gained around 50 pounds because I was eating five meals a day, but still trying to go to the gym consistently,” he said. “Coming into college I was 125 pounds and now I’m 176 pounds. The college atmosphere definitely impacted my diet because I wasn’t restricted to what I could eat and when.”

College is a time of change for a lot of students. They are on their own for the first time and have to start making more decisions for themselves: What food should I eat? And how can I maintain a good diet while at school? 

While these seem like simple tasks, they are daunting for many students.   

In college, young adults have more access to different foods than they may have in their home environment. While some didn’t have as many healthy options, others didn’t have as many unhealthy options. 

“But in some cases, they didn’t have as much access to French fries and pizza and soda, and then it can end up going in another direction, the other way,” she said. “So, it definitely, I think, is a rude awakening one way or another.”

The stress and pressure of college life can have a great impact on students’ eating habits.  However, body image issues don’t just stem from anywhere. Negative views on body image and the way young adults perceive their bodies may have their origin in social media apps that feature photos and other content related to physical appearance, according to interviews with experts and college-age people. 

This social media influence can have an impact on people’s diets, and it becomes a culture that negatively affects the way young people consume food.

Clorinda Velez is an associate professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University. She spoke about body image issues and some of the reasons behind why they develop in the first place.

“It’s 24 hours a day. It’s nonstop,” she said. “There are so many ways to access it. It’s constantly reinforcing these images of what, for most people, is an unattainable body and for most people is actually an unhealthy body.”

Social media has a big effect on young adults’ body image issues and the creation of overall dieting culture on college campuses, including Quinnipiac. Young people are adopting diets and making changes to their eating habits without properly informing themselves about the impact these changes can have on their health and well-being. 

“You get people that buy into what they see on social media and then they start doing it and then it becomes like a real culture of the environment that you’re in,” White said. “I think there is so much bad information out there about nutrition and fitness, that it’s very easy to get sucked in and to make big changes that actually, even if your intentions are good, you think that you’re going to be promoting your health in some way, and you’re actually doing the opposite.”

Shannon Luker is a third-year graphic design major at Quinnipiac. She said she has been impacted by social media and the influence it has on her own body and diet.

“There are a lot of fashion accounts that I follow and most of the outfits only look good on the models if they are super skinny,” Luker said. “I don’t think of myself as being overweight, but it makes me feel like I need to look skinnier because if those clothes don’t look the same on me as they do the models it almost makes me think less of myself.”

For some young adults and college-age students, the changes to their diet in pursuit of a physical ideal can turn into disordered eating and diagnosed eating disorders. 

“We’re fighting against cultural norms,” Velez said. “There’s so much pressure coming from outside to focus on your body, to focus on very singular body types, impossible body types to achieve. If you look at the average BMI for anorexia and if you look at the average BMI, for example, in Playboy centerfolds over recent decades, it’s at BMI’s that are typical for anorexia. People are striving for an ideal. So, you know, it’s a hard battle.”

Dieting culture, in general, is extremely harmful to college communities where body image issues are prominent.

According to the Industrial Psychiatry Journal, “Individuals who perceive their bodies negatively with regard to culturally valued features may have low self-esteem, low satisfaction in life and feeling of inferiority and pose themselves at higher risk for depression, anxiety or eating disorders.”

These negative views of body image affect college students more profoundly due to their developmental state at this age, especially during their first year.

According to the Journal of College Student Development, “The first year of college constitutes a time of substantial transition for incoming students. For many traditional-age students, adjusting to college can include tasks that are as mundane as doing one’s own laundry for the first time, or as complex as finding meaning in one’s life and deciding on a future career.”

This is a vulnerable stage for young adults and college students who may be more easily influenced by body image as they try to figure out their personal identity.

According to the Mayo Clinic, dieting and stress are both risk factors for developing eating disorders or disordered eating habits.

“There’s strong evidence to suggest that dieting precedes anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. So, engaging in dieting behavior is a clear and established risk factor for both anorexia and bulimia nervosa,” Velez said.

When looking into this link between dieting culture and eating disorders, it is important to learn some of the facts that go along with it.  

According to a Fall 2020 survey of 13,373 college students across 22 institutions conducted by the American College Health Association, 54% of college females and 39% of college males are dieting to lose weight.

Also, in the same survey, 48% of females and 24% of males said they had discussed issues related to eating disorders with a professional within the last year.

According to the Child Mind Institute, “Eating disorders can and do occur in teenagers, and even in young children. But it’s during the college years that young people, especially young women, are most at risk for developing them.”

While young women are most at risk, this does not mean men do not struggle with issues of dieting and disordered eating as well.

“Absolutely men in Western culture, you know, face a lot of the same pressures that women do,” Velez said. “We know that both men and women in our country are increasing in weight over time. So, the difference between the average person and this ideal body that we have is getting greater and greater over time for both males and females.”

It is also important to recognize the risk factors that college students could be exposed to that may lead to issues of dieting, disordered eating and the development of eating disorders.

“Food is fun. Food makes us feel good,” White said. “Food is also, you know, a social thing, right? So, there’s a lot of reasons where the stress of college can then translate to that. Then you think of the environment that you’re in… and it can set the stage for maybe fostering some unhealthy eating habits for sure.”

It’s not just the stress of a college environment that could be leading to these negative eating habits, but the atmosphere of being surrounded by other students as well. 

“I think the influence of others is also a part of it, right,” White added. “I think we get very influenced by what we see others doing, whether it’s good for us or not. And so that peer influence I think has an impact on students’ choices as well.”

Many students, such as Luker, feel the pressure of being in college and the impact it has on their diets. Also, the strong effect that social media and accounts that promote diet and fitness have on their body image views. 

“I have attempted to cut out bread and extra carbs in the past because I felt like it made me gain a lot of weight,” she said. “I don’t really stick to that now. I just do it sometimes, but also allow myself to have cheat days. The stigma with carbs and not having any is definitely a big issue with people my age, but it’s all about the balance.”

No one ever talks about what actual dietitians would say. Instead, they just go off of fitness Instagram accounts that don’t really provide accurate information.

Shannon Luker, third-year graphic design major at Quinnipiac.

Popular fitness accounts are constantly sharing different foods to eat to help with weight loss. The issue is most of the time these influencers are compensated by companies for promoting their products and it is not actually the food they eat on a daily basis. On top of that, these relationships are not always disclosed to the public. Also, they promote cutting out necessary food groups such as carbs and sugars.

Influencers such as Selter show off their fit bodies while talking about these so-called “better-for-you” food products. This constant posting of fit body types makes young adults feel the need to compare themselves to these images.

“Nice body… I’m jealous.”

“You’re so ripped, I’m so envious!”

“so jealous.”

These are just a few comments left on fitness influencer, Kayla Itsines, Instagram posts.

The standard fitness and wellness influencers are promoting is only furthering the dieting culture that is having such a negative effect on young adults and college students.

With this in mind and considering the issue of dieting culture in college, how does this impact students at Quinnipiac?

In February 2021, a survey was conducted of 69 Quinnipiac students, 39 females and 30 males all ages 18 to 21. The survey aimed to learn more about dieting cultures’ effect on Quinnipiac students and how college has affected their dieting. 

The findings were in support of the argument that dieting culture has a negative impact on students. More than half of the students surveyed have dieted in college as well as felt pressure to constantly exercise and eat healthy.

Also, about two-thirds of the students surveyed have either had an eating disorder themselves or know of someone who has had one in college.

These results, alongside some of the factors Quinnipiac students said have affected their eating habits, only further shows how impactful this culture surrounding eating and exercise can really be.

Females and males throughout Quinnipiac’s community struggle with the dieting culture that is prominent on our campus and other college campuses as well.

The survey conducted with QU students shows how this culture is notable on our campus. More than half of those who participated stated that social media has influenced their perception of their body. Also, that calorie count on dining hall or restaurant menus impact their dining choices. These are just a few of the factors that have prompted this dieting culture that students are affected by.

“We do four-week menu cycles that are based on student feedback that we get from talking to students, from doing surveys with students and it’s also up to our culinary team to try to stay hip with trends and do different things so it doesn’t get boring,” he said.

On all QU Dining menus there are calorie counts provided alongside the food items. While there are students who may not take a second look, for others this number is a much bigger deal. However, according to Chenette, they do this because while some may not care, there are people who do, whether that be for health concerns or other reasons. 

“Sometimes if you pay attention it might be eye-opening to look at something you eat all the time and say, ‘Oh my goodness look at the amount of calories that is,’” he said. “But as long as you are managing what you eat throughout the day and throughout the week I don’t see how it could be harmful.” 

While it may not affect everyone, dieting and eating disorders both exist on QU’s campus and students continue to battle with these issues. There is so much misinformation out there that can end up being really harmful to young adults and college-age people.

“I think I heard we had a dietitian on campus because my psychology teacher mentioned it once, but also I would have never known otherwise,” Luker said. “I wouldn’t know where to go if I needed help with issues of diet and eating, aside from maybe seeing a school counselor.”

While there are students out there like Luker that feel more can be done to provide resources on campus, staff such as White believe these issues are talked about, just maybe not enough.

“It’s not that it’s not being addressed, but you know, we have a lot of students here and I think that most of them would agree that there’s more that we could do,” White said. “But at the same time, I understand that it’s not an easy thing to execute because everybody’s nutrition needs are different.”

There are so many influences that put pressure on young adults to feel the need to achieve this idea of an unattainable body. The dieting culture within college-age students can have truly negative effects on their overall health and well-being. 

“I think recognizing just how negatively we may be talking to ourselves… recognize that maybe we need to be gentler on ourselves,” Velez said. “Now that’s easier said than done, but just trying to catch yourself and trying to think in a more realistic and adaptive way about your body. It’s only one part of you who you are, there’s so much more to you.”