Food practices and nutritional status of university students who use the University Restaurant

Objective To evaluate the food practices and nutritional status of students who use the University Restaurant at a public university. Methods This is a cross-sectional study carried out with 958 university students. Data related to regular eating practices (>= 5 times/week), routine food consumption and nutritional status were collected. The association between University Restaurant attendance and dietary practices and body mass index was reviewed by bivariate logistic regression model and multiple regression. Results Students who attended the University Restaurant three or more times a week were more likely to regularly consume beans (OR: 1.35, p=0.041) and fresh salad (OR: 1.77, p<0.001) and less likely to have afternoon snack (OR: 0.68; p=0.008). In addition, an association between soda consumption and overweight was observed. Conclusion Thus, the importance of strategies that seek to promote incentives for healthy eating and lifestyle practices in the university population become evident.