Grant Proposal for Nutrition

Jun Wakabayashi
6 Baccarat Ct
Montville, NJ 07045
October 6, 2010
Peggy Policastro
Instructor and Director, Healthy Dining Team
255 Davison Hall
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
RE: Proposal for an online dietary web service moderated by staff of professional nutritionists
Dear Ms. Policastro,
The Rutgers Dining Services of Rutgers University is the third largest student dining operation in the country, operating five student dining facilities that serve over 4.5 million meals annually and 20,000 to 25,000 meals on a daily basis. Of all the students that utilize the dining facilities, first-year students, many of which are experiencing a prolonged period away from home for the very first time, are the ones that find themselves at the all-you-can-eat frenzy for 2-3 meals a day, 7 days a week. Speaking from personal experience as a freshman, I, myself, was tempted by the unlimited selection of foods and splurged like there was no tomorrow, that is, until I stepped on the scale a few weeks later. Having the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu dictated by parents every day until college, the majority of freshman lack basic nutritional knowledge to effectively produce and maintain a healthy diet that would invariably rule out any sort of excessive, and unhealthy weight gain. I feel that implementing a online web service in which students can input their own physical characteristics to produce a strict diet regiment based off of the daily foods that the dining halls provides would severely decrease any chance of unwarranted increase in weight, and ultimately diminish obesity rates in America within the next several years.
Obesity Plaguing America
A greasy cheeseburger coupled with deep-fried French fries along with a slice of pizza drenched in oil and to top it off, a cold carbonated soda is an example of a typical lunch set for a college student, and more specifically, a freshman. Essentially the first prolonged period away from home, freshmen tend to splurge without boundaries—inevitably causing significant weight gain which is most likely attributed to the consumption of larger portions of food in the endless, all-you-can-eat frenzy that is the dining hall, the uncontrollable snacking during ungodly hours, and the lack of physical activity throughout the semester. Stress and minimal physical activity aside, food can be suspected as the main culprit behind the apparent weight gain, dubbed “freshman 15”, that most first-year students encounter, although studies have shown that a 15 pound increase in weight is but a fable as statistics depict that the average weight gain in freshmen is actually closer to 9 pounds (Carithers 2). According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), in 2003-2004 approximately two thirds or 66% of the adults living in the US are overweight or obese (Gropper 1). Furthermore, results from both the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the NHANES show that during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, a high proportion of adolescents becomes obese and actually remains obese; in addition, because obesity is not easily reversible those who are obese or develop obesity as young adults are at increased risks of obesity through adulthood (Desai 1). So despite a mere 9 pound increase, it is a small stepping stone that will eventually add to that staggering statistic if a proper diet and healthy nutrition isn’t maintained.
Veering towards obesity is a life-threatening hazard in itself, as doing so significantly increases the risk of contracting several health conditions including hypertension, dyslipidemia, sleep apnea, and some cancers (Gropper 2). As frightening as it may be, the negligence of something as trivial as a diet can significantly decrease one’s mortality rate. Approximately 300,000 deaths in the United States each year are attributed to unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity, in addition to the fact that the US invests $33 billion annually on weight-loss products and services and the billions more spent on physical medical care (Vella 1). In a study done by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study Investigators, a sample of 5209 adults, age 28 through 62 years was studied to determine a possible correlation between obesity and mortality rate—life expectancy more specifically (Peeters 2). The results determined that overweight was associated with a 3-year decrease in life expectancy; obesity was associated with a 7-year decrease for women and a 6-year decrease for men (Peters 6). As Desai mentioned earlier, weight that is gained in adolescence will most likely stay within the body through adulthood unless proper nutrition and strict regiments of physical activity are maintained and considering that college students, mainly freshmen, adopt unhealthy and irregular eating habits, it would be wise for universities nation and worldwide to campaign against obesity before it hits life-threatening stages before it’s too late.
Through multitudes of scientific study, one is able to grasp the magnitudes of obesity within college-aged students, in addition to several distinct causes of unwarranted and significant weight gain. In a study by two sociologists named Pliner and Saunders, a sample of 72 students, 57 male and 15 female, was surveyed through the use of a 69-item Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). A decreased consumption of fruit and vegetables was then found to be one of the primary dietary predictors of weight (Crombie 3). Also, surprisingly, in this study it was found that despite finding massive weight gains and increase in fat mass, there was actually a decrease in reported mean energy intake. “Reported daily intake decreased from 2205 kcal to 1857 kcal, with significant decreases in the amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and fat consumed” (Crombie 3). The students also reported a slight decrease in the amount of vegetables, breads/pasta, milk, and meat, four crucial components of the food triangle, which are vital to the function of the body (Crombie 4). The lack of physical exercise, due to academic or extra-curricular obligations, or just plain laziness, only bolsters the inevitable weight gain in such conditions. Needless to say, proper dieting and exercise are of the least worries to first-year students who just entered the new, exciting atmosphere that is college.
Research Supporting Nutrition-Education Supplements
Nutrition education and prevention efforts catered primarily to freshmen, as well as sophomores and upperclassmen on a smaller account, is of great importance because first-year students face the most dietary challenges and are in the midst of establishing permanent health-behaviors. Studies have shown that the new college lifestyle, the epitome of freedom, can negatively impact the dietary consumption of many first and second year students, invariably affecting both short-term and long-term wellbeing (Kicklighter 1). In a study done by American College Health Association, a large group of freshmen and sophomores were shown a list of 11 daily-activities and told to rate the importance of each activity from greatest, which was given the numerical value of 1, to least important, which was given the numerical value of 11; ‘Healthy eating’ came out as number 7 (Kicklighter 1). In the same study, many students admitted to lacking planning and self-monitoring skills that are crucial to adapting healthful behaviors in their life on campus, going on further to argue that due to competing priorities and stress, college students often select foods based on taste, time, convenience, and cost, rather than nutritional value (Kicklighter 2). Unfortunately, the reality of the truth is that many college students are lazy. Having to count the calories on each specific dish within the dining hall, and classify each entrée into a food group is just too much of a hassle for students. With a set dietary layout, catered to the specific dishes offered at any dining hall on a particular day, that specifies what and how much food to eat for each meal, students, freshmen especially, won’t have to go through the trouble of planning their own diet and eat without having to worry about the calorie intake the slightest bit.
A study done at Auburn University in Alabama by the Department of Nutrition and Food Science asserts that weight gain is in fact a problem for college students, particularly freshmen, but for only about 5% does it reach the notorious “freshmen 15” (Gropper 1). Nonetheless, such unwarranted weight gain is inevitably accompanied by unhealthy changes in waist circumference, absolute body fat, and body mass index, and, in some, an increased risk of health problems (Gropper 1). AU’s Department of Nutrition and Food Science goes on further to suggest that health promotion and intervention programs on campus may be needed for all college students, not just freshmen, in order to address some of the issues related to undesirable body weight and composition changes that may occur while in college, a view that Desai strongly advocates at the conclusion of her findings in an experiment done at Duke University. A total of 5,144 students completed the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) questionnaire, which is loosely based off of the original EAT-40 questionnaire that scientists Garner and Garfinkel developed to screen for anorexia symptoms (Desai 2). It was found that college students who reported inactivity were more likely to be overweight or obese than were their peers. These students also reported erratic eating behaviors, whether it be excessive eating, late-night snacking, or unhealthy snacking in general (Desai 4). Desai goes on further to suggest that in order to completely and confidently tackle the issue, a multifaceted approach that includes education about healthy eating attitudes as well as emotional strengthening and personality evaluation is likely to be more effective than weight reduction alone in the treatment of overweight populations (Desai 5).
In 2005, the American College Health Association established a practice to improve the quality of health promotion in higher education, going further to recommend that health promotion be grounded in recognized theoretical frameworks, integrated into academic courses, and designed using evidence-based approaches, including both quantitative and qualitative (Wharton 1). Despite this, with motivation aside, the ability and knowledge to create a strict dietary regiment, is still what most first-year students lack. The chicken fingers and burgers at Tillett’s primary dining line is what freshmen first see when they walk into the dining hall when there is a perfectly healthy and quite filling salad bar with various toppings rich in fiber and grains to the side. Even the sandwich line indisputably proves to be more of a benefactor than the fried foods line, yet most freshmen still choose not to take advantage of such an amenity, as surveyed by Dining Hall Services in 2009. As such, in an effort to increase nutritional awareness, a staff of professional nutritionists should be employed to act as consultants for primarily freshmen, but upperclassmen as well. Such a staff will be able to create a strict, weekly, dietary regiment just based solely off the foods available within the dining hall, a service that will be accessible online for students to utilize and view. Implementing such a system is an overall endeavor to personalize and create hands-on nutritional learning in a way that everyone will obtain results tailored to their needs and wants.
Successful Implementations of Nutrition Education
During the brief consultations that freshmen will receive, they will be informed on eating habits, good and bad, as well as different methods to prevent undesired weight-gain. In George State University, the Division of Nutrition held a study in which an educational module, called Nutrition Survival Skills, was proctored by graduate nutrition students to freshmen as part of a course called GSU 1010, New Student Orientation (Kicklighter 2). Module content essentially emphasized healthier food choices from the Food Guide Pyramid, portion control, the importance of breakfast, simple and healthy meal preparation in the dorm, and selection of healthier foods on and around campus. Further evaluation of the module was then conducted in 5 focus groups held within 2 to 5 weeks after the nutrition module presentation (Kicklighter 2). As a result, the majority of students expressed the acquisition of new, practical knowledge pertaining to nutrition including, but not limited to, the fact that it is easy and economical to shop and prepare simple but healthy meals and snacks, the realization that fast food and snacks contain an excessive amount of calories and fat, and a clear revelation of the students’ inaccuracy in portioning daily food choices (Kicklighter 3). A few students even made statements about the need to learn strategies to choose healthier foods, regardless of their schedule, situation, or location (Kicklighter 3).
The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of an educational nutrition module in regard to students’ dietary habits. The module itself seemed to have made a lasting impression on the students, ultimately changing views on their own diets and increasing their food portions and eating habits. Loosely following this study, Rutgers should implement this sort of educational nutrition module during new student orientation, instead of an individual basis, and provide nutritional consultation afterwards to induce maximum effectiveness.
In a second study, conducted by the Division of Nutritional Sciences, at Cornell, 41 female freshmen, age 18 years or more, were recruited through on-campus posters, email advertisements, and large introductory classes to participant in a experiment containing both a control and experimental group to measure the effectiveness of methods to prevent freshman weight gain. In this particular study, the method consisted of teaching students about portion sizes, ultimately letting them know how many calories to increase or decrease to maintain a constant weight (Levitsky 4). The experimental group was sent an email each day regarding how many calories to increase or decrease to maintain his or her weight, whereas the control group was not contacted again until the last week of the semester. At that point, both groups were weighed once again, and as a result, the experimental group actually maintained a statistical average in weight-gain of 0kg, where as the control group had a statistical average in weight-gain of approximately 2.0kg (Levitsky 4). On average, students who were provided feedback about their weight and calorie intake did not gain a statistically significant amount of weight during the semester (Levitsky 6). With a little extrapolation, it can be safe to assume that when provided with specific information pertaining to maintaining weight, the majority of students will follow. As such, creating a web service in which specific diet plans, catered to personal needs, with precise nutritional facts including calories, amount of fat, sugar, or salt, and serving size, about every single item on the daily dining hall menus will undoubtedly prove to create a diminishing impact on the college obesity rate.
Online Service to Promote Healthy Eating Habits
My plan consists of having each freshman having a mandatory consultation in the beginning of the year, in addition to a short infosession on healthy, nutritional eating at college. The consultants will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of typical freshmen diets in accordance to the US Department of Agriculture Interactive Healthy Eating Index (IHEI), which is a measure of overall diet quality. Walk-ins for personal consultations and inquiries for sophomores and upperclassmen are optional, but if they wanted to solely create a diet to follow, they could visit the website, hosted by dining services, and enter their physical characteristics and ultimate goals pertaining to weight, as well as calorie intake, and receive a fully-detailed printable summary of their soon-to-be diet. The website will have an up-to-date database on the daily menus at every single dining hall at Rutgers, whether it’d be Tillett, Busch, Neilson, Brower, or even Rutgers Club. Along with the daily menus comes with the nutritional breakdown of each and every dish, providing specific information on calories, sugar, sodium, or salt levels, serving sizes, and much more. Whether or not the freshmen, or any of the enrolled students, decide to follow the dietary supplement is of their own free will of course, but I feel that is say to assume that debunking the “freshman 15” can be enough of an incentive.
In terms of expenses, with regard to the recent budget cut, hiring an entire new staff of professionals will prove to be a daunting task undoubtedly. However, many of the nurses that work at the health centers possesses a great deal of knowledge pertaining to nutrition, thus allowing them to be transferred over to this new staff of professional nutritionists, in turn, cutting anticipated salary expenses significantly. For the remainder of the staff, it comes down to a matter of prioritizing and allocating costs from different departments. Also, several grants are available in which large sums of money can be obtained. One grant in particular named Translational Research for the Prevention and Control of Diabetes and Obesity invests money within public institutions of higher education, such as Rutgers University, to research prevention methods and effectively battle against obesity, as well as diabetes. The estimated award ceiling comes out to about $500,000, an amount that is just barely enough to initiate this online dietary program for students. This program will indisputably be a movement towards a healthier and brighter future.
Thank you very much for taking your time and consideration to read my proposal. If you are interested with my idea please feel free to share it with the rest of the administration. I cordially invite you to my oral presentation on December 10, 2010 at 10:20am LSH-B110. Feel free to contact me at [e-mail] if you have any questions.
Sincerely,

Jun Wakabayashi

Works Cited
Carithers-Thomas, Jennifer A., et al. "FRESHMAN FIFTEEN: FACT OR FICTION?." College Student Journal44.2 (2010): 419-423. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 010.
Crombie, Aaron P., et al. "The freshman weight gain phenomenon revisited." Nutrition Reviews 67.2 (2009): 83-94. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Desai, Melissa N., et al. "Risk Factors Associated With Overweight and Obesity in College Students."Journal of American College Health 57.1 (2008): 109-114. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2010.
Gropper, Sareen S., et al. "The Freshman 15—A Closer Look." Journal of American College Health 58.3 (2009): 223-231. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Kicklighter, Jana Regina, et al. "College Freshmen Perceptions of Effective and Ineffective Aspects of Nutrition Education." Journal of American College Health 59.2 (2010): 98- 104. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Levitsky, D. A., et al. "Monitoring weight daily blocks the freshman weight gain: a model for combating the epidemic of obesity." International Journal of Obesity 30.6 (2006): 1003- 1010. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Peeters, Anna, et al. "Obesity in Adulthood and Its Consequences for Life Expectancy: A Life- Table Analysis." Annals of Internal Medicine 138.1 (2003): 24. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2010.
Vella-Zarb, Rachel A., and Frank J. Elgar. "The ‘Freshman 5’: A Meta-Analysis of Weight Gain in the Freshman Year of College." Journal of American College Health 58.2 (2009): 161- 166. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Ward-Smith, Peggy. "Obesity -- America 's Health Crisis." Urologic Nursing 30.4 (2010): 242- 245.Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Wharton, Christopher M., Troy Adams, and Jeffrey S. Hampl. "Weight Loss Practices and Body Weight Perceptions Among US College Students." Journal of American College Health 56.5 (2008): 579-584.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.

Cited: Carithers-Thomas, Jennifer A., et al. "FRESHMAN FIFTEEN: FACT OR FICTION?." College Student Journal44.2 (2010): 419-423. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 010. Crombie, Aaron P., et al. "The freshman weight gain phenomenon revisited." Nutrition Reviews 67.2 (2009): 83-94. Academic Search Complete Desai, Melissa N., et al. "Risk Factors Associated With Overweight and Obesity in College Students."Journal of American College Health 57.1 (2008): 109-114. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. Gropper, Sareen S., et al. "The Freshman 15—A Closer Look." Journal of American College Health 58.3 (2009): 223-231. Academic Search Complete Kicklighter, Jana Regina, et al. "College Freshmen Perceptions of Effective and Ineffective Aspects of Nutrition Education." Journal of American College Health 59.2 (2010): 98- 104. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. Levitsky, D. A., et al. "Monitoring weight daily blocks the freshman weight gain: a model for combating the epidemic of obesity." International Journal of Obesity 30.6 (2006): 1003- 1010. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. Peeters, Anna, et al. "Obesity in Adulthood and Its Consequences for Life Expectancy: A Life- Table Analysis." Annals of Internal Medicine 138.1 (2003): 24. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. Vella-Zarb, Rachel A., and Frank J. Elgar. "The ‘Freshman 5’: A Meta-Analysis of Weight Gain in the Freshman Year of College." Journal of American College Health 58.2 (2009): 161- 166. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. Ward-Smith, Peggy. "Obesity -- America 's Health Crisis." Urologic Nursing 30.4 (2010): 242- 245.Academic Search Complete Health 56.5 (2008): 579-584.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.