Food Culture and Tertiary Education Students’ Feeding Habits: Implications for Nutrition Education

The study assessed food culture and tertiary education students’ feeding habits and their implications for nutrition education. The study was prompted by the manner students eat fast food and other local delicacies on campus. Four research questions guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive design. The population of the study comprised all students in tertiary institutions in Delta State. The multistage sampling technique was involved in the study; thus, purposive, quota and random sampling techniques were used. There are five universities, three colleges of education, and two polytechnics in Delta State. From these institutions, one university (Delta State University, Agbor), one polytechnic (Delta State Polytechnique, Ogwashi-Uku), and one college of education (Federal College of Education {T}, Asaba) were purposively selected for the study. From each of the institutions, 100 students were selected through the accidental sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a researcher’s developed questionnaire titled; Food Culture, Students Feeding Habit and Nutrition Education Questionnaire (FCSFHNEQ). The instrument was a 34-item with a four-point rating. The instrument was validated by two experts while the reliability was established through a trial test and a consistency value of 0.81 was attained. 300 copies of the instrument were administered and all were returned. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used for data analysis. The findings in the study revealed among others that; campus food culture affects the day-to-day meal intake of students and the general feeding habits of students as it determines what they eat, conditions the social situation of eateries in the campuses, and influences them to eat what they wish to eat without regards to health conditions. The study recommended among things that nutrition education should be integrated in education curricula at all levels and be made compulsory for all learners, since everyone, the young and the old eat food to survive.