• Violeida Sánchez Socarrás and Alicia Aguilar Martínez.
• Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Estudios Universitarios de Ciencias de la Salud. Fundació Universitària del Bages. España.. violeidas@hotmail.com.
• Nutr Hosp. 2014 Sep 18; 31 (1): 449-57.

IntroductionThe university population is considered a particularly vulnerable group from the nutritional point of view as it begins to take responsibility for their food and going through a critical period in the consolidation of habits and food-related behaviors. Previous studies highlight the loss of healthy dietary patterns and the need to develop educational and nutritional interventions.ObjectivesTo analyze habits and food-related behaviors in a university population in Catalonia as a starting point to develop effective strategies for health promotion.MethodsCross-sectional observational study of dietary habits and food-related behaviors (alcohol, tobacco and physical activity) in Catalan university students.ResultsLunch and dinner at home were the essential meals of the surveyed students while breakfast and afternoon snack were omitted about 20% of cases. The obtained dietary pattern was characterized by an excessive consumption of red meat (84%) and poor or very poor consumption of vegetables (39.8%), cereals (92.6%) and fruit (73.9%). The consumption of alcohol was low, and the most consumed beverage was beer. The majority of students reported not being regular smokers. Among regular smokers predominated women. Alcohol consumption was also low and beer was the most consumed beverage. A considerable number of students were used to performing moderate or intense physical activity three or more times a week, although a similar proportion not perform any physical activity regularly.Discussion And ConclusionsIn the studied population, food habits that deviate from the recommendations of the Mediterranean Diet are detected in a large number of students: low consumption of fruits and vegetables, increased consumption of dairy products and a predominance in the consumption of red meat in front of poultry. These changes are in line with those that occurred in recent years in Spain and in other industrialized countries.Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

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