The importance of a Cardiovascular Diet among College Students - Essay Example

College students are growing up in a completely new environment outside of their parents’ home, which is a completely new experience for most of them. This means that they are making independent choices with respect to their food consumption. Today, most college students lack the right kind of education regarding what is good for one’s body and what is bad, primarily because parents have largely determined their diet in the home and public schools have largely determined their diet in school.

For this reason, college students are more and more likely to adopt unhealthy practices as opposed to the healthy, cardiovascular diet options. Nevertheless, college students are perfectly capable of realizing the benefits, and necessity, of adopting a cardiovascular diet. A cardiovascular diet, as the name implies, is a diet that is friendly first to a person’s heart. Because the long-term health of the heart is the best determinant of how long a person lives, a diet that improves its general condition is important.

Additionally, with the rise in rates of cardiovascular disease as the single most prevalent killer in the United States, people are realizing that protecting the heart even from an early age is imperative. An example of a cardiovascular diet is the so-called Mediterranean diet, which incorporates high olive oil consumption, legumes, unrefined cereals, vegetables, fruits, fish, and wine. In eating only these foods, individuals can cut out much of the saturated fat associated with cardiovascular disease.

The beauty of the Mediterranean diet and similar cardiovascular diets is that they are practical. Certainly, it is not difficult to find the kinds of food choices considered acceptable under the guidelines of any cardiovascular diet. Of course, college students who consume a mostly-fatty diet put themselves the most at risk for cardiovascular disease. Students may have such a diet if access to food is limited, such as the case with most dormitory cafeterias, or the fast food density in their area.

Access to exercise also plays a large role in whether a high-fat diet is manifested in being asymptomatic for cardiovascular disease. However, students can have the most impact on their own health by starting on a foundation of good quality foods, which can be as simple as making more intelligent choices in the cafeteria or at the fast food restaurant: such as choosing a smaller portion, choosing a less-fatty food, or eating less often. By adopting these changes, college-aged people can reverse their unhealthy habits.

Part of preventing unhealthy eating choices from creating long-term cardiovascular problems is to catch the problem early. For college-age students, the problem can start on the first day of one’s first year eating in the school cafeteria, which tends to offer mass-produced, cheap food that have a high fat content. Colleges and universities can both educate incoming first-year students about the importance of smart eating choices and the cardiovascular diet even before they begin eating there.

In addition to this, colleges and universities can invest in practical ways to make the food choices in their cafeterias healthier for students. Instead of offering a high fat, high-sodium pizza, for instance, a cafeteria could make a thin-crust, low salt, cheese-free option, which represents the kind of Mediterranean diet that achieves long-lasting cardiovascular health. Young women, who