Greatist.com has released their annual list of the 25 healthiest college campuses just in time for the end of the school year.

• The ranking process started with nominations from readers, reader suggestions from last year’s list, surveys from the College Prowler and Princeton Review and examination of over 100 colleges’ websites.

• Each school is scored for its dining services and awards, fitness facilities, health services, happiness rankings, and health and fitness initiatives.

• The top five schools on this year’s list are Bowdoin College, Stanford University, Virginia Tech, Rice University and Washington University in St. Louis.
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In this fast paced age of instant gratification, young people are skipping breakfast in favor of checking their Instagram while they scramble to get to school or work on time. A new University of Missouri study aimed to quantify the nutritional benefits of the most important meal of the day. Moms in Missouri rejoiced, students were ecstatic for the free grub, and the results were just shy of major significance.

Twenty obese college girls were fed a breakfast high in protein (sausage and eggs), a normal protein breakfast (cereal), or no breakfast at all. Participants were given coolers full of unhealthy snacks to measure their appetite later in the day. While that may have been a misstep by the scientists considering Cheetos and Little Debbies are awfully tempting to any starving college student, the breakfast protein experiment did yield minor results. Researchers found that the more protein consumed during breakfast led to higher appetite satiety and decreased hunger later in the day.
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By Stephanie Barnes for HelloGiggles.com

It’s finally here! Spring Break – the most magical time of the year for students everywhere. It’s time to leave your books and the stresses of real life behind and head out to find your little piece of paradise. Sounds perfect, right? What could go wrong while laying out on the beach sipping pretty drinks with hundreds of other bikini and Speedo clad college students? Many spring breakers get so caught up in the excitement of getting away that they go a little overboard – ending up on a wild ride of debauchery. But with a little pre-party planning, you can have an amazing time without all the superfluous stuff.

Be a Better Beach Baby

First thing you’ll probably want to do is hit the beach. Sea, sun and sand. Don’t forget your sunblock as overexposure to the sun can be extremely taxing on your body.

The beach is also great for reading. Catch up on the latest gossip from your favorite magazine or dive into that novel you’ve been dying to get your hands on. Put your cellphone away and focus entirely on your present moment. Just enjoy the pleasure of being unplugged, because your mental health is as important as your physical health.
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Have you heard college students joke about the “Freshman 15”? The 10-15 pounds on average that students can gain throughout their college years is no laughing matter. These students are the future of our country and obesity contributes to deadly, costly health problems later in life. To reach this technology-savvy generation, here are some tips on leveraging smartphones, tablets, and social media avenues to stop the “Freshman 15” before it starts.

There are countless free smartphone and tablet apps available to help students make healthier lifestyle choices. What all these apps have in common is that you can choose to receive daily or weekly notifications to ensure compliance and motivation. Here are a few places to start:
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“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

While we all aspire to be eternally young, one part of youth we can all do without is the irrational sense of invincibility. That, and the overpowering need to be accepted by the “in crowd.”

With that in mind, it’s not hard to believe that the highest percentage of problem drinkers is college students. Heavy drinking, mixed with youthful hormones and naivety, leads to violence, careless sexual activity, and now something that is being called drunkorexia.

Recent Canadian research has found that young men and women are skipping meals, yet are also consuming a day’s worth of calories in alcohol. In other words, young people who want to lose weight, but still want to party, cut out the meals in order to do so and stay thin. They may also be drinking excessively with the intention of purging previously consumed food.

While it’s not yet a recognized eating disorder, the health risks of drunkorexia are very real. Weight-conscious drinkers are risking nutrient deprivation, liver damage, and death.

It’s not a problem exclusive to the U.S. or college-age kids for that matter.
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