The Pattern of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Saudi University Students

Abstract

The positive benefits of consumption fruit and vegetable are well documented in studies of health and body weight maintain. A cross sectional study was conducted utilized street based survey among 960 female students at King Faisal University in AL-Hasa, Saudi Arabia, to investigate the daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and the psychosocial factors related to the consumption. Seventy-eight percent of students consuming <5 servings/day of fruit and vegetable with only 22% of them consuming ≥5 servings/day, majority of them are in the normal BMI category. For psychosocial factors the higher consumption group more knowledgeable about the daily consumption of fruit and vegetable, and had more confidence in eating fruit and vegetables under difficult circumstances with significant differences between the groups (P=0.000, P=0.045; respectively). Self efficacy was significantly predictor for recommended daily fruit and vegetable consumption (β=0.303, SE=0.023, P=0.000), but perceived barriers and knowledge not predictor for recommended daily consumption. The results of this study can be useful to design an intervention to promote fruit and vegetable intake among this target group.

Food intake of university students

“…Low intake of fruits and vegetables [13,15,17,18,20,23,26,27,29,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][38][39][40][41][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] 69.0 87.5…”

“…Yet, other studies found that both genders had low intake of fruits and vegetables [17,40]. Studies of females only also found low intake of fruits and vegetables by most, and the need to improve diet quality [24,31,36,41].…”

“…Some studies report that women have healthier eating habits than men [38,51], but others have found no differences between men and women [17,40,48]. Still, regardless of sex, university students' intake of fruits and vegetables remains low [17,24,31,36,40,41,47,51].…”

“…The main outcome investigated by most foreign studies was the frequency of students' fruit and vegetable intake according to international recommendations, and said intake was low in all analyzed studies [13,15,17,18,20,23,26,27,29,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]38,41]. Additionally, some studies have also found a low intake of dietary fibers [26,30,32,33].…”

Fruits and vegetables preference among university students towards developing healthy food innovation products

“…From this study, it is recommended that students develop the desire to consume vegetables and fruits, choose vegetables and fruits with less sugar and sodium, and buy the less costly fruit and vegetable choices. Besides, it is recommended for the respondents to prepare food with fresh vegetables and fruits in various ways using different recipes during meal times and refreshments [16]. Other than that, fruits can usually be eaten as refreshment or desserts after meals.…”