When college time comes around, one of the most important life changes occurs during the transition phase from living at home to living independently. As a result, many important food choices are deeply involved in this phase (Gomez, Mora, Sogari, and Velez-Argumedo, 2018).

Risk Factors Include:

• Increased unhealthy eating habits

• Lower consumption of fruits & vegetables

• More irregular meals occur (i.e. - skipping breakfast)

• Unhealthy weight-loss practices become more common

• Higher intakes of alcohol consumption occur

• Lower levels of physical activity 

• Exposure to new food environments (i.e. - all you can eat dining commons)

• High intakes of "junk foods" are common that are high in saturated fat, added sugars, sodium, and empty calories (i.e.- cookies, cake, chips, candy, ice cream)