For many students at Tufts, the race to find the perfect roommate began as soon as an acceptance letter landed in their mailboxes. They had to consider what kinds of traits they should evaluate in a potential roommate — sleep habits, study habits, smoking habits. But according to recent research, incoming freshmen may want to add their roommate's weight to that list.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Marquette University found that girls with overweight college roommates are less likely to gain weight than those living with slimmer girls.
The researchers attribute their findings mainly to the fact that people living in close quarters tend to pick up habits from one another; dieting and exercise are more common among overweight women. In other words, weight loss — just like obesity — appears to spread between family members and close mutual friends through social contagion, also known as the "I'll have what she's having" effect.
If an overweight college student is dieting — eating a steady supply of low-calorie snacks, for example, or even using weight-loss supplements — it is likely that his or her roommate will also engage in those behaviors, and begin to accept them as the "social norm."
Not only weight loss and gain, but also overall health, can be influenced by one's environment, the researchers found. Essentially, the peer pressure effect can be harnessed to facilitate the adoption of healthier behaviors.
At Tufts, Dining Services has adopted several measures in an effort to create a more healthful environment on campus — one that will hopefully rub off on less-healthy students, Tufts Nutrition Dieting Specialist Julie Lampie said. In addition to offering a variety of wholesome food options, she said, Dining Services now also posts nutritional information about the dishes it serves on its website, enabling students to calculate the exact amount of food they should consume in the dining halls in order to satisfy daily nutritional needs.
"Students have a terrific resource to use that is based on accessing the Tufts Dining website," she said. "It allows you to determine the nutrient content of the meal you have consumed in either Dewick-MacPhie, Carmichael or Hodgdon — as well as any of the retail restaurants on campus."
Freshman Kimberly Ritraj found the Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT) pre-orientation program to be a good foundation for a healthy college lifestyle. During FIT, not only did she get to know a group of health-conscious students, but she also learned that the Tufts student body consisted of far fewer overweight students than she had expected.
Tufts' hilly geography is uniquely able to help students stay healthy, according to freshman Danielle Rodriguez.
"We are always exercising going up and down the hill to class," she said.
With regard to the University of Michigan and Marquette University study, Lampie said that she has noticed that females are particularly influenced by what those around them eat. She hopes that at Tufts, however, Dining Services' resources and food choices will encourage even those students who socialize with less-healthy individuals to adopt healthful habits.
"By determining what you will eat prior to coming to the dining hall, you are less likely to be influenced not only by your peers but also by the food itself," Lampie said.
Even small, self-imposed eating restrictions can vastly improve students' health, Lampie said. While the obligatory unlimited meal plans for freshmen may encourage students to overeat, she said that every meal need not include, for example, dessert — as enticing as that favorite flavor of frozen yogurt or slice of apple pie may be.
Additionally, she said, portion size is important and often goes overlooked; a large bowl, for example, may be necessary for salad, but not for other foods that may have a higher fat content, such as Lucky Charms cereal, which is why Dining Services is now working on an initiative inspired by student comments that aims to present portion size information to students in a clearer way, she said.
But Lampie gave one simple piece of advice for staying healthy at college.
"Start early on," Lampie said. It is extremely difficult to shed bad eating habits, but staying on track with a healthy regimen is doable, she said.
