Nutrition education improves diet quality in university students

By Dr. Sanchari Sinha Dutta, Ph.D.Reviewed by Lauren HardakerMay 19 2026

A simple university nutrition program helped students eat healthier, reduce ultra-processed foods, and show encouraging signs of better mental well-being, highlighting how small dietary changes may support both body and mind. 

Study: Changes in dietary habits and mental well-being among university students following an educational intervention: pilot study. Image credit: RossHelen/Shutterstock.com

A new study published in Scientific Reports highlights the benefits of implementing nutrition education programs at universities, including improved diet quality and positive trends in students' mental well-being.

Ultra-processed foods linked to poorer mental health

The increasing popularity of processed and ultra-processed foods has become a major public health challenge worldwide, as these foods are known to increase the risk of cardiometabolic as well as mental health disorders, especially among adolescents and young adults.

Recent global estimates indicate that about 2.5 billion people are living with obesity or overweight, and 970 million people are suffering from mental disorders across the world.

Modifiable lifestyle factors play a significant role in modulating the risks of both physical and mental disorders. Consumption of a healthy, balanced diet and regular physical activity has been found to improve cardiometabolic health and reduce the risk of emotional distress, such as depression and anxiety.

Short-term nutritional interventions have shown beneficial outcomes, including improved diet quality and dietary habits, and have led to metabolic improvements. Compared with single-component or short-term interventions, long-term multicomponent interventions have been associated with greater improvements in dietary habits, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Given the known benefits of nutritional interventions and the scarcity of research on the mental health impact of these interventions among Chilean students, researchers at the Finis Terrae University, Chile, evaluated the impact of a nutrition education program on diet quality and mental well-being among Chilean university students.

Students attended seminars, snack sessions, and cooking guidance

The study enrolled 31 university students aged 18 to 20 years. The participants attended a nutrition education program for three months, which included seminars, healthy snack breaks, and a book that provided information on nutrition and health and easy, cheap recipes for preparing real, healthy food.

Dietary intake and mental well-being of participants were assessed before and after the intervention using an automated self-administered dietary assessment tool and a validated mental well-being scale, respectively.

The study was designed as a pilot before-and-after intervention without a control group, meaning the findings should be interpreted cautiously and cannot establish causality.

Nutrition program reduced ultra-processed food consumption

The assessment of macronutrient intake (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) revealed a substantial increase in the proportion of students whose carbohydrate and fat intakes fell within recommended ranges following completion of the nutrition education program. Participants’ protein intakes, however, were adequate both at baseline and after the intervention period.

The assessment of micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) and food group intakes revealed that calcium and sodium intakes were, respectively, below and above the recommended ranges at baseline across participants. After the intervention, calcium intake increased, and sodium intake decreased significantly, becoming no longer statistically different from the recommended intake range.

The intake of fruits increased by almost 2-fold after the intervention; however, it remained below the recommended range. In contrast, the intake of processed and ultra-processed foods decreased significantly after the intervention. Intakes of dairy products, vegetables, and total fiber remained below the recommended ranges at both time points and showed no change after the intervention.

The post-intervention assessment of participants' mental well-being showed a moderate increase in subjective well-being on items related to cognitive clarity, social connectedness, and decision-making. However, affective and self-perception items remained largely unchanged after the intervention. Although overall mental well-being scores increased from the low to the moderate range, these changes were not statistically significant.

Impact of dietary patterns on mental wellbeing

The correlation analysis revealed a significant positive association between sodium and saturated fat intakes among participants at baseline. This association substantially weakened over time during the intervention period.

A significant inverse association between sodium intake and mental well-being at baseline was observed, which disappeared after the intervention. These findings indicate a potential attenuation of unhealthy diet–mental wellbeing associations following the intervention.

Nutrition education showed targeted benefits for student health

The study highlights the usefulness of a structured nutrition education intervention in improving diet quality and supporting favorable trends in mental well-being among university students.

Overall, the findings indicate that the nutrition education program was associated with beneficial changes in immediately actionable behaviors, such as restricting sodium intake and reducing intake of processed and ultra-processed foods. However, this intervention may be less effective at changing habit-dependent behaviors, such as increasing intake of vegetables and dietary fiber.

Notably, the findings indicate that even a partial improvement in dietary patterns may contribute to favorable trends in some aspects of mental well-being among university students, although the study did not evaluate long-term outcomes.

Regarding mental well-being, the study finds that the nutrition education program was associated with increased perceptions of interpersonal closeness and personal autonomy. The observed improvement in overall mental well-being scores among participants following the intervention could be attributed to the anti-inflammatory and gut health-improving responses triggered by increased fruit and calcium intake and reduced sodium and ultra-processed food intake; however, these biological mechanisms were not directly measured in the study.

Previous studies involving Chilean university students have reported a lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating habits, and an increased risk of weight gain upon admission to higher education. Studies involving adult populations have reported that about 33 % of women and 27 % of men are living with obesity in Chile. Regarding mental health, studies have observed emotional distress among 60 % of adolescents.

Given the nutritional and mental health scenario in Chile, this study highlights the need for future large-scale and long-term research to identify specific program components that most effectively help students achieve nutritional adequacy and mental well-being.

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