Dietary Regimen, Overweight, and Obesity in Human Nutrition Students and Other Majors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background. Choosing a healthy diet is an increasingly a challenge for university students. The objective of this study was to compare diet and overweight/obesity in human nutrition students (HNS) and students of other careers (SOC) from a university located in Lima, Peru. Methods. It was a cross-sectional study consisting of 158 students out of an initial sample of 170. Information was collected on the sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics of the participants and a validated questionnaire was applied to evaluate the frequency of food consumption. Results. There was no significant difference in diet between HNS and SOC ( $p$  > 0.05). HNS most frequently consumed yellow/orange vegetables ( $p$  = 0.020), purple vegetables ( $p$  = 0.049), citrus fruits ( $p$  = 0.029), eggs ( $p$  = 0.002), whole milk ( $p$  = 0.013), yogurt ( $p$  = 0.017), tofu ( $p$  = 0.003), olive oil ( $p$  = 0.003), other vegetable oils ( $p$  < 0.001), and alcoholic beverages ( $p$  = 0.037) than SOC. In contrast, HNS had a lower frequency of nonfried tuber intake ( $p$  = 0.039), fried tubers ( $p$  < 0.001), milk desserts ( $p$  = 0.048), flour fritters ( $p$  = 0.027), cookies with chocolate ( $p$  = 0.050), croissants ( $p$  = 0.030), cookies with filling ( $p$  = 0.024), candies ( $p$  = 0.006), and soda ( $p$  = 0.016) than SOC. Overweight/obesity was not different between HNS and SOC ( $p$  > 0.05). Conclusions. This study found significant differences in the consumption of some foods between HNS and SOC. However, it found no significant difference in diet and overweight/obesity between HNS and SOC.