This research suggests that the quantity of unhealthy snacks consumed by students in the faculty of Land and Food systems is not statistically different from the quantity of unhealthy snacks consumed by students in faculties that lack exposure to nutrition education. In other words, although students in LFS consume smaller quantities of unhealthy snacks than students in other faculties, the quantity difference is too minute to be considered statistically significant. Therefore, we cannot reach a definitive conclusion that LFS students adopt healthier eating habits and thereby extrapolate that nutrition education has minimal impact on the eating habits of students.

This research can be improved or clarified by increasing the sample size, and perhaps, increasing the number of buildings surveyed on campus. A secondary variable that could be included to further clarify our research is, to determine whether or not the surveyed individual has taken any nutritional course as an elective or any extracurricular nutritional classes. If the individual has indeed taken optional nutritional courses, it may provide further insight to the results and eliminate bias. In addition, more snack options can also be included in the survey sheet so that most if not all snack foods will be considered. Potential researches that enrich this topic may look into conducting cluster sampling to expand the research to different regions of Canada or in the world. Researchers who are focusing on food insecurity or malnutrition could look into high-risk areas and third world countries. Future food infrastructure developments and school pedagogies can utilize the results from these studies to implement a nutritionally balanced school food system. Limitations of this study include two potential sampling biases– the non-response response and convenience bias. A few students surveyed seem reluctant to fill in the survey sheet, which may potentially affect the answers they give. There may also be a convenience sampling bias given that the students were only surveyed at the FNH, MacMillan, and Hennings buildings. This is largely due to the scale of this study and limiting resources.

 Feel free to comment and let us know any of your thoughts! Were you surprised about our findings?

copyright: http://resistmagazine.com/2012/01/15/new-trition-for-the-new-you/