Jackson Hopper

March 13, 2023

HEA-201-04

College is the first dramatic living change I have ever experienced. For the first time in

my life, I was the sole person in charge of my own wellbeing. Because of procrastination and

disorganization, I often had to make sacrifices to get work done. Consistently, I would be forced

to practice, work, or study through meals due to this disorganization. Skipping meals has become

a habit for me, so I decided to change that. My behavior change was eating three meals a day,

with the goal of developing longterm healthy habits to keep myself productive, energized, and

overall healthy.

In a student PSA from the University of Louisville, Dr. Nancy Kuppersmith lays out the

effects of skipping meals. Some of the effects include lowered metabolism, weight gain, low en-

ergy levels, headaches, shaking, and constant tiredness(Kuppersmith). Personally, I have noticed

every one of these effects in my own life. In the long term, regular meal skipping can lead to se-

rious health conditions. In a study published in Nutrients, connections are drawn between meal

skipping and metabolic syndrome. The conclusion of the study suggests that “current evidence

has indicated that meal timing and frequency, skipping meals, and fasting are all associated with

metabolic syndrome (Alkhulaifi & Darkoh, 2022).”

In my daily journal, my success towards completing my goal is clearly seen. During the

week of February 12, I made no changes to my habits whatsoever. I kept track of all my meals,

although I did not change anything about when or what I ate. After writing all of my meals down

through the week, I had a realization about just how much of a problem my eating habits were

becoming. I began to realize that I needed to input effort in order to make a change, and this
marks a place in my journey where I began to really try. It took an entire week to make the

changes needed to meet my goal, but by the final week I was consistently eating 3 meals a day.

The other major discovery from my journal related to the quality of the food I am eating.

I reached my goal of consistently eating 3 meals a day, but I did so by consuming copious

amounts of junk food. I rarely get a nutritious meal, and only eat what is cheap and tastes good.

The next step in my journey is to eat a more balanced diet. This involves cooking more, and in-

vesting more money into the food I consume. While the UNCG cafeteria consistently healthy op-

tions, they also consistently have unhealthy options. I am a relatively picky eater, and each

‘healthy’ menu item is never a food I enjoy. I am a confident cook, so I understand that healthy

food does not always have to be gross! Healthy food can be flavorful, filling, and can even mim-

mic versions of the foods I love. I am excited to move off campus next year, where I will have

access to a kitchen and be able to cook for myself.

Meal skipping is a very common sight on college campuses, especially in the School of

Music. In the School of Music, musical performance is consistently put above health by students

and faculty alike. Students skip meals to practice, and sacrifice their mental health obsessing

about improving their skills. A paper from the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and

Physical Activity regarding meal skipping in young adults was published in 2016. This paper

complied the findings from 35 different studies on meal skipping in young adults, and found the

percentage of young adults who consistently skip meals to range between 14 and 88%, the latter

being an absolutely staggering (Pendergast et al., 2016). These data were very surprising to me,

and I feel strongly that something should be done about this problem. Health education plays a

crucial role in stopping this problem, and I will begin to combat these statistics everywhere I can.
 References

Alkhulaifi, F., & Darkoh, C. (2022, April 21). Meal timing, meal frequency and metabolic syn-

drome. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9102985/

Kuppersmith, N. (n.d.). Perils of Skipping Meals. Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine -

School of Medicine University of Louisville. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://

louisville.edu/medicine/departments/familymedicine/files/L081611.pdf

Pendergast, F. J., Livingstone, K. M., Worsley, A., & McNaughton, S. A. (2016, December 1).

Correlates of meal skipping in Young Adults: A systematic review - international journal

of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. BioMed Central. Retrieved March 12, 2023,

from https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-016-0451-1#Sec26