Objective: Food insecurity in college students is associated with poor eating habits. The purpose of this project was to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in college students using a campus food pantry. Participants: Twenty-nine college students completed the study. Methods: Participants viewed weekly food preparation videos…

Objective: To apply behavioral economics strategies (i.e., placement changes and signage) to nudge university students' healthy dining hall eating. Participants: A convenience sample of 4208 students exiting a university dining hall were asked to take a brief survey on meal selections. Methods: Three unique nudges (related to beverage, snack and…

Implicit approach associations are well documented for substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. This study reports two experiments designed to establish and modify such associations specifically in the food craving domain. Experiment 1 used a pictorial implicit association task to examine approach-avoidance associations with…

Objective: Small-scale pilot testing of supplementing a required college health-related fitness course with a cognitive-behavioral exercise-support protocol (The Coach Approach). Participants: Three classes were randomly assigned to Usual processes (n = 32), Coach Approach-supplemented: Mid-size Groups (n = 32), and Coach Approach-supplemented:…

Objective: The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in explaining the 5-A-Day intentions and behavior of college students. A secondary purpose was to determine whether any of the TPB relationships were moderated by gender or ethnicity. Design: A prospective design that asked…

Food mishandling is thought to be more acute among young adults; yet little is known about why they may engage in risky food handling behaviors. The purpose of this study was to create valid, reliable instruments for assessing key food safety psychosocial measures. Development of the measures began by examining published studies and behavior…

Based on converging evidence that visual and olfactory images are key components of food cravings, the authors tested a central prediction of the elaborated intrusion theory of desire, that mutual competition between modality-specific tasks and desire-related imagery can suppress such cravings. In each of Experiments 1 and 2, 90 undergraduate…

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture recommends use of food thermometers to safely cook small cuts of meat, yet most consumers do not use them. Consumers lack knowledge about how and why to use food thermometers with small cuts of meat. Opportunities exist for family and consumer science classes to provide education about thermometers to adolescents, who…