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 The more gardening experience the college freshmen had, the greater
their intake of produce, the study also found. Those who had
gardened both during childhood and more recently ate 20 percent more
servings of fruits and vegetables than classmates who had never
gardened.
“The first year of college represents a major shift in independence
for many young adults,” said senior study author Anne Mathews of the
University of Florida in Gainesville.
“Most are moving from a home where food is provided and a daily
schedule is pretty well set . . . to a life where they are now in
charge of every single decision about food throughout the day,” she
told Reuters Health by email.
Mathews and colleagues analyzed data from more than 1,100 college
freshmen at eight U.S. universities. The students answered
questionnaires about their fruit and vegetable intake and also about
their gardening experience, including even small plants in pots,
such as herbs, that can be grown on a windowsill.
The researchers found that 11 percent of students had gardened only
during childhood, 19 percent had gardened only more recently, 20
percent gardened both during childhood and recently and 49 percent
had never gardened.
On average, students who gardened as children and in the 12 months
prior to the study ate about 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per
day versus 1.9 cups for those who had never gardened.
In addition, recent gardeners who reported gardening weekly ate
close to 3 cups of greens, while those who gardened monthly averaged
2.4 cups.
Mathews noted that having childhood experience with gardening isn’t
enough. Students needed to carry the practice into their college
years to continue good habits.
“We know that overall diet quality worsens when students begin
college and that includes eating fewer fruits and vegetables,”
Mathews said. “We also know that behaviors set during this phase of
life tend to carry into adulthood.”
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While recruiting participants, the study team screened more than
5,000 students and found that 85 percent of this group didn’t eat
the recommended two fruit and three vegetable servings per day. This
indicates that a large majority of high school seniors probably are
not meeting the recommendation either, the authors note in Journal
of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“The first year of college is a very unique time in a person’s
life,” said Mateja Savoie Roskos, a community nutrition researcher
at Utah State University in Logan, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Many first-year college students experience weight gain often
stemming from sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary patterns,” she
told Reuters Health by email.
Future studies should look at additional factors that influence
fruit and vegetable habits, she said.
At the eight universities in this study, several include ways for
students to get involved with gardening experience on campus, Savoie
Roskos noted. For example, the University of Florida has a Field and
Fork Garden and Food Pantry, where students can volunteer to grow
food, and some of the food is donated to the campus food pantry.
She said she’d also like to know how gardening experience can change
from childhood through college.
“Getting children involved with gardening at an early age is vital
to influencing food choices early in life,” she said. “Children
enjoy being part of the process from planting, weeding and watering
to harvesting and cooking.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2Dp9H3R Journal of the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics, online November 30, 2017.
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