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Look around any student campus today and you'll notice many young adults are overweight. Take a close look at their diets, and a common theme will emerge — they aren't getting near their recommended nutritional requirement of five-a-day, five vegetable and fruit servings every day.

And studies have revealed that these unhealthy eating habits are getting worse. "This is a worrying trend, given that young adults require plenty of physical and mental energy as they prepare for life's bigger responsibilities, and are simultaneously establishing eating behaviours that will set in for the rest of their lives and impact on their future families habits too," warns dietitian Jane Badham.

Studies conducted in the US and Europe among college students have consistently shown that very few meet the recommended vegetable and fruit intake, and even fewer receive information from their institutions regarding what constitutes healthy eating.

In a study of the eating habits of some 40 000 American students at 28 universities and colleges, the results indicate that black students had a significantly lower vegetable and fruit consumption than white or Asian students, and that the percentage of students who reached the appropriate vegetable and fruit consumption was about three percent lower than the population as a whole.

First year syndrome

In another study of first year university students in Germany, only 3.8 percent of students reported eating the recommended five servings of vegetables and fruit a day, while an investigation by the Belgium Department of Public Health into canteen meals at a university found most meal combinations to be sorely deficient of vegetable content.

The carbo-heavy food offered in tertiary institution canteens clearly compounds the problem. Out of home eating has also increased considerably during the last decade, with young adults habitually consuming fast foods and so the ever decreasing vegetable and fruit intake.

"University constitutes an environment change for young people in that they experience less parental control and are far more exposed to unhealthy food choices, says Badham.

"Students often also stop participating in sports activities and they can more freely indulge in unhealthy lifestyle practices such as smoking, drinking and less healthy eating. This is a great concern as the university environment plays an important role in the manifestation of health behaviours in young adults," she adds.

To redress this imbalance, Badham says busy young adults need better access to five-a-day. "More vegetables and fruit in canteen offerings would have little or no bearing on cost, but would improve the nutritional quality of the food that students are consuming. It would be a modest, efficient way to improve the health of our young adults," she says.

Considering the tight budgets that students live on, it is as important to price vegetables and fruit accordingly, Badham concludes, "partly because disease prevention through good nutrition makes sound economic sense and when better to set health patterns that will follow through life".