Name:
Ran Wang
WRIT1133-27,
MWF 12:00
Prof.
Eric Leake
05/17/12
913 Words
Eating Disorder of Local
Students and International Students
After reading others’ and my own daily
food journals, one thing interests me is the eating disorder of both local students
and international students in American universities. There are so many people
in our group who talked about their missing breakfast or irregular eating
habits. As an international student, I found eating disorder is one of the
serious issues among college students in America within my first year here. Actually,
both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are seriously unhealthy lifestyle.
The most important reason that developed these two diseases is the irregular
eating habits. It is a hot topic that how this phenomenon has developed among
American college students.
Firstly, I want to talk about the eating
disorder which takes place in local students. Justin Carrington’s “Time, money
affect eating habits” has some valuable ideas about this topic. In this
article, the author implies some reasons of why lots of local students
developed the irregular eating habits through personal communications. The most
interesting part I found is that time affects their eating habits. "The major thing that prevents students from eating
healthy is time," Crabtree said. As one of the interviewees,
Crabtree also said “I really don't like eating breakfast, but I have to because
I might not have time to eat any other time during the day until late at night."
From this student’s opinion, we can see that the availability of time makes
students eating irregularly. On the other hand, I did find another reason which
causes lots of student have the irregular eating habits. From a parent’s
perspective, Lait said he “believes sometimes not having mom and dad around to
guide what is being purchased can lead to certain unhealthy eating habits.” I
think it is true; especially when students go to colleges, a new environment can
change students’ dietary habits by variable ways. Besides, everyone has
different dietary habits and schedule; so, when people go to college, new
friends also will affect their dietary habits through different ways. I believe
it is a truth that if parents are not around to guide which kind of food is
healthy and nourishing, some food which look comfortable and tasty but is not
healthy will change them healthy eating habits sometimes.
After analyzing
the local students’ situation, I think the irregular eating habits of
international students would be more serious. For example, American parents
believe new college life will lead to their kids’ dietary habit an unhealthy
point because they cannot be around to guide them how to eat healthily. For
international students, what we face is a new country rather than a different
city in the same country. Meanwhile, our parents are much further away, and
there is no way for them to guide us what should we eat or not. Rather than the
reason of living without proper guidance, students’ personal issues are also
very serious. Considering the interviewed student Crabtree, he said that he has
to eat breakfast because he does not have time to eat anytime else during the
day until the late at night. It is fair to say that college students have very
tensive schedules during the daytime. So, for international students, we would
have more stressful schedules than American students because English is the
second language for us and everything is new. We could spend much more time on
studying; otherwise, we can easily be eliminated by American colleges. As a
result, compare with American students, our dietary habits are more irregularly
and unhealthy.
Moreover, I
found a research journal which is called “Changes in food neophobia and dietary
habits of international students.” In this journal, it uses different research
theories to show what the international student’s dietary habits are and
whether they can develop new dietary habits in different countries. Specifically,
the author uses the statistical analysis, demographics, procedures, data tables
to analyze if a climate for positive learning is to be established, what
dietary habits changes will take place in the acculturation process for
international students. There is a report which studies the Asian students in
the USA, suggesting that “the number of meals consumed per day decreased, with
almost half of them missing breakfast more often than the other two meals,
primarily because of their class timetables. (Pan et al.,
1999)” As for me, I
think this phenomenon is same with my schedule since I study in American. When
I lived in our school dorm first quarter, my roommate was an American and we
got along well with each other. But as time went on, we found that we had the
different daily schedules and dietary habits. I admit my daily schedule in
America is disordered and I have the irregular eating
habits. For example, every day I just
have a meal and most of time I study until midnight. Finally, we did not
continue living together in the second quarter, but we understand each other.
As a
conclusion, eating disorder of local
students and international students is always a problem and need to be solved –
especially the international students’ irregular eating habits. As for me, I appreciate a lot that my roommate can
understand the international students’ daily schedule and irregular eating
habits. Maybe because sometimes he has the disordered time schedules as well as
I do, not always though. At present, I am trying to adapt the life and study in
America, and to adjust my irregular eating habits. I believe that I can do it
in the near future.
Work Cited
.
"N.C.
State: Time, Money Affect Eating Habits." The America's Intelligence
WirePrint. 2009.
Edwards, J. S. A., H. L. Hartwell, and L. Brown.
"Changes in Food Neophobia and Dietary Habits of International
Students." Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the
official journal of the British Dietetic Association 23.3
(2010): 301-11. Print.
, , & (1999) Asian students change their eating patterns after living
in the United States. J. Am. Diet. Assoc.99, 54–57.
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