A conceptual analysis strategy for exploring how college students experience, understand and manage their dietary patterns in relation to their studies, takes into account the students‟ physiological need for food. It places a premium on the mutual link between students‟ dietary welfare and their learning and posits that for any meaningful and fruitful learning engagement to occur, one of the most basic physiological needs which Abraham Maslow (1970), identifies as food, is essential.
Abraham Maslow‟s (1943) hierarchy of needs organises human needs from basic to sophisticated levels. In order of increasing importance, the clusters of needs included in Maslow‟s hierarchy are physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and the need for self-actualisation. Maslow (1943:23) describes the body‟s physiological need for food, especially in terms of maintaining homeostasis of water, salt, macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and temperature within the bloodstream. He elaborates that
Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most pre-potent of all needs…If all the needs are unsatisfied, and the organism is then dominated by the physiological needs, all other needs may become simply non-existent or be pushed into the background…for consciousness is almost completely pre-empted by hunger. For the chronically and extremely hungry man…life itself tends to be defined in terms of eating. Anything else will be defined as unimportant (1943:23).
On the contrary to the directive authority of food, achievement is among the least potent of needs. According to Maslow
All people in our society…have a need or desire for self-esteem…that is soundly based upon real capacity, achievement, and respect from others (1970:371).
It is important to note Maslow‟s postulation that once needs on one level are satisfied, needs at higher levels emerge and dominate the organism‟s thoughts and behaviours. Since food is a lower need, then it has to be satisfied before need for achievement could be thought about. Therefore, according to Maslow‟s hierarchy, the need or desire for achievement will not drive a person‟s thoughts and behaviours until needs on the lower levels have been satisfied. As a result, the cognitive processes and behaviours associated with the more sophisticated levels on the hierarchy cannot
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be achieved. At a very basic level, humans who have not met their basic nutritional needs cannot attain needs at the higher levels. Meaningful and purposeful learning cannot be expected from students experiencing basic needs deprivation. As much as a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with diabetes will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of cutback. A student who is deprived of a proper diet is more likely to prioritise activities that satisfy the food need at the expense of studies, despite the fact that they value their studies.
While Maslow‟s hierarchy offers an expository connection between food and learning, not much research-based information from students has been generated regarding the extent to which they are aware of their nutritional requirements, the factors playing out on their dietary patterns and the influence of these variables on their learning (Lieberman, 2007:555S).
Nutrition is more often a problem with college students. Students may have difficulty finding the time to cook adequate meals. Most students are just learning to live on their own, and learning to cook can prove to be a challenge. Finding time to go to the grocery store once every couple of weeks can be a demanding task. Little storage space is available in the average dorm room, and food storage may not be possible at all (Trockel, Mickey, Barnes, Michael, Egget & Dennis, 2000:788).
A lot of times, students sacrifice their nutrition for other things that feel more pressing at the time, like studying or socializing, or doing laundry or something they might not have been responsible for earlier. While nutritionists make recommendations for people to have at least three balanced meals a day, experts expressed much concern on breakfast as crucial to college students, for many students, the routine is not uncommon: roll out of bed, rush to class and skip breakfast entirely. Nutrition experts warn that skipping breakfast can have negative consequences on weight and academic performance (Willett et al., 2010:48). It is part of the larger problem of college students' questionable nutritional habits (Kamphuis, 2006:939). It is no secret that college students are frequently sleep deprived, so when one has to choose between breakfast and sleep, breakfast often gets pushed to the wayside.
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Economos in Willett, Sampson, Stampfer, Rosner and Bain (2010:235) goes on to say that breakfast improves concentration and when people skip breakfast and their blood sugar or blood glucose levels fall overnight and they wake up and try to perform on low blood glucose, they tend to get really tired and irritable because the brain certainly relies on a certain level of circulating blood glucose or blood sugar, and when that starts to dip, one cannot focus or maintain that focus for long periods of time. Anuar & Ghazali, 2011:60 concurs with Economos (2010:235) that students should avoid falling into a pattern of skipping breakfast and at the very least should have something small to eat in the morning, even if they are in a rush. However, gaps exist in the literature examining the long-term effects of breakfast on school performance and how the observed effects of breakfast on cognition are modified by age, sex, and nutritional status (Selkowitz, 2000:465). The single study that was not restricted to breakfast demonstrated a positive association between the consumption of regular meals and school performance (Trockel et al., 2000:567).
According to The Korean Nutrition Society, (2002:259) energy levels, attention span, and academic performance are influenced by food consumption patterns. Whilst those patterns are largely one‟s responsibility, individuals must choose to build a strong, supportive foundation for their learning on which a career is built. Balanced, sound nutrition is an important part of that foundation since energy level and attention span are influenced by eating habits (Murakami et al., 2008:140). Sanchez-Villegas, Henriquez, Figueiras, Ortuno, Lahortiga and Martinez-Gonzalez (2007:337) state that food provides energy needed for all the body systems including the brain, to function at optimum levels thus every organ and function of the body requires adequate nutrition and energy. Body cells, including those that are part of the brain, need nutrients and energy for their function and repair (Helwig, 2009:234).
What the above literature seems to suggest is that in the majority of situations, the manner in which students consume food is rather haphazard. They do not follow well- planned schedules of food preparation and choice of foods on the basis of nutritional value. It appears as if positive results are dependent on proper patterns while disorganised patterns may negatively impact on students‟ learning.
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