Name:
Ran Wang
WRIT1133-27,
MWF 12:00
Prof.
Eric Leake
06/01/12
2363 Words
Nowadays, with
the rapid economic development and the improvement of people’s living standard,
a growing number of people would like to study abroad when they have certain
conditions. As an international student, In fact, I found it hard to adjust the
life in a new country. Not only I, there is a large number of students who also
believe it is difficult to have the same daily life with local students - Especially
in dietary habits issue. The international students are tending to have more
serious eating disorder problems.
The
dietary habits disorder points out the international students who have the
irregular eating habits. Actually, the international students’ irregular eating
habits were formed by two reasons. Firstly, we have exactly the
different eating schedule with local students, which is disordered. It has the
intimate relationship with our daily routine. In this case, I think it is
because we spend more time on studying and adapting local lifestyle than local
students. The second reason is that we have the different dietary habits with the
local students. To be more specific, I found a large portion of the
international students have their own food choices, and these food choices are
depending on where are they from. They always prefer to choose the foods from
their own countries instead of simply adapting a new food culture, and it takes
a lot effort to find those food in another country in which they go to school. Basically,
different
countries have completely different food culture and dietary habits. It is a
fact that people who are from different countries have different food culture
backgrounds. Sometimes it is too hard to make them to accept and
infatuate with other countries food. As for me, I think there is no
doubt that enough concern should be paid to the problem of international
students’ irregular eating habits both in eating schedule and food choices. I
think that I am also one of the international students who have the irregular
eating habits, and based on my own food value, I am looking forward to a change
which would enable me to have the regular dietary habits.
First of all,
let us talk about the international students’ irregular eating habits about different eating schedule issue. To compare
with the local students, international students’ eating schedule has more
serious problems. To begin with, the eating schedule of many local students is
going to be analyzed. For example, Justin
Carrington’s “Time, money affect
eating habits” has some valuable ideas about local students’ eating schedule. In
this article, the author implies some reasons of why lots of local students have
developed the irregular eating habits by 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, one of Carrington’s
interviewee, said. Also, Crabtree suggests that “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 local students have the
irregular eating habits. In the same article, 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. When the environment changes,
students might not be able to adjust it very well without their parents’ guide.
Besides, everyone has different dietary habits and schedule before leaving home
and going to colleges; so, when people do that, new friends also will affect
their dietary habits through different ways. In most cases, some types of food
which look comfortable and tasty but are not healthy will change their tastes
to an unhealthy pattern easily. These unhealthy food choices will lead their
dietary habits to irregular eating habits, because sometimes they only focus on
tasty food rather than nourishing food. As a result, I believe it is a truth
that if parents are not around to guide which kind of food is healthy and nourishing,
their dietary habits will be misguided through variable ways.
Thus, local students’
parents believe new college life will lead their kids’ dietary habit to unhealthy
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. On the other
hand, new people and friends that we get along with are foreigners who have
entirely different lifestyles with us, especially in dietary part.
Moreover, not
just eating without proper guidance, the international students’ personal
issues are also very serious. There is a report, which studies the Asian students
in the USA, suggests 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” (55). So, to continue on considering
the interviewed student Crabtree, he said that he had to eat breakfast because
he did 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. For international students, we have more stressful
schedules than American students because English is the second language for us and
everything is new and different. We have to spend much more time on studying;
otherwise, we can easily be eliminated by American colleges.
Also, I have
my own experiences to support this phenomenon. In this quarter, we did three-day
food journals for our writing class; after
reading others’ and my own daily food journals, I
found that our food journals show that most of us have irregular eating habits.
For example, many of my classmates talked about that they had been missing
breakfast every day.
Personally, I think this phenomenon matches my eating schedule
problem since I study in America. When I lived in our school dorm in the 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 different daily schedules and dietary
habits. I admit that my daily schedule in America is disordered and I have the irregular
eating habits. For example, I just
have one meal every day and most of the time I study until midnight. Eventually,
we did not continue living together in the second quarter because of the
schedule issue, but we understand each other.
About this
irregular eating habits issue, I believe it will become better in the future. The
reason is that, as time goes on, I will be improving my English skills if I
live in America for a longer time. In addition, I think so many things will be
better and I will get used to the life in the U.S. So that I won’t be spending
much more time on study than American students, and I will have enough time to
make my eating schedule regular in the future.
After analyzing the schedule issue, I will
talk about the problems about making food choices. Other than schedule
conflicts, I eat completely different with my past roommate. As for me, I have
to say that it is hard to accept American food, and it is hard to change my
food choices because I lived in China for 20 years. Chinese food has an
enormous impact on my life. Maybe my roommate likes American food for the same
reason. It is a common idea that different countries form very different dietary habits. I think if
someone lives in other countries, he or she should try to follow the local food
style. People need to adapt the new environment, even though eating other
countries’ food all the time could be really difficult and excruciating. Otherwise, it would be inconvenience for us, and insisting on keeping
the old habits can easily lead people to unhealthy life. For instance, if we
want to go outside to eat Chinese food, we not only need to spend unnecessary
money and time in a Chinese restaurant, but also we waste our meal plan cash
which everyone who is not yet a junior or not 21 years old would have. In
this case, 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 students’ dietary habits are and whether they
can develop new dietary habits in different countries or not. Specifically, the
author uses the statistical analyses, 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. I am very interested in this research journal, especially in the
conclusion part: “
The present study aimed to evaluate the extent to
which international post-graduate students experience and demonstrate food
neophobia over time, how this might vary by nationality and other demographic
characteristics, and how acculturation might manifest itself in students’.”
From this quote, we can see
the acculturation for international students is very important. On the other
hand, another academic research which is called “Changes in dietary habits
following temporal migration” also reveals some important points on food choice
issue. One thing I found most important in this academic research is:“
International students may face cultural adjustment
pressure and discrimination in their living environment, and hence they have to
develop specific strategies, including food procurement and purchasing
strategies, to cope with the short- and long-term stays abroad (Constantine, Anderson, Berkel, Caldwell, & Utsey,
2005).”
We can sort out from the
source that we have to face cultural adjustment pressure. Although this article
did not suggest that if we should follow the new country’s food or keep
following our hometowns’ food, the adjustment issue needs to be directly dealt
with since it is becoming more and more serious.
Even though the issue of disordered eating habits is very
serious, I still believe we will be able to accept the new food culture
gradually without noticing because the food culture is irresistible. As the
author Roy Ahn said in his article “Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food”:“
When I went out, I ate all
the things my friend did- pizza, hot dogs, enchiladas, and fries with greasy
chili that turned the paper wrapper orange. It’s worth nothing that two
Korean-American boys were among my circle, but we rarely went out for food from
the homeland. Whatever the reason, they were much more comfortable than I was with
being Korean-American. (13)”
From
this quote, we can see the author is a Korean-American. In his article, he
suggests that the American cooking and diet culture for an immigrant is
irresistible although he always tried to keep his old eating habits. I believe,
as time goes on, not only a Korean immigrant will be affected by the food
culture of the States, but also all immigrants from different countries will be
affected and changed by the new cultures in variable ways. Maybe the different
between author and I is our identity. The author is an immigrant status, so he
is living in America since he was young, but I just stayed in America for a
year as international student. So I am living a shorter time than the author,
and it is still hard for me to change my eating habits right now. I also found
a research paper which can support the idea that time can decide the food
choice. Here is an article which is called
“International students in US colleges and
universities: Eating habits, cultural identity, and dietary acculturation.” In
this article, the author Noyongoyo said:“
There is an increase, especially among sub-Saharan African students, of
items that are typical to American diet such as TV (frozen) dinners, packaged cakes,
tea/coffee and a decrease in foods from their country of origin. Hence, dietary
acculturation is a consequence of length of time, friendship ties, and
availability of imported native foods. (63)”
From this quote, we can see the dietary
acculturation is relying on the length of time living in a new country.
In conclusion, my food value suggest me to try
to have regular eating habits in the future – either in having a regular eating
schedule or having the same food choice habits with local students. As I mentioned,
I believe either of these two dietary habits disorder is depending on the time
being in a new country; more importantly, it is depending on how to
use the shortest time to get used to the new life in other countries.
Work Cited
"N.C. State: Time,
Money Affect Eating Habits." The America's Intelligence Wire.
Print. 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.
Perez-Cueto, Federico, et al. "Changes in Dietary Habits Following
Temporal
Migration.
the Case of International Students in Belgium." Appetite
52.1 (2009): 83-8. Print.
Ahn,
Roy. Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food. Gastronomica: The Journal
of Food and Culture,
Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 12-15. Retrieved from
Noyongoyo, B.. International students in US colleges and
universities: Eating habits,
cultural
identity, and dietary acculturation. Diss. East Carolina University, 2011. Dissertations & Theses:
Full Text, ProQuest. Web. 2 Jun. 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment