How are Related Online Learning and Food Consumption?

With the rise in online learning, students’ daily lives are being affected in a variety of ways. One might think that these two are unrelated but eating habits and learning methods have a close relationship with each other.

We know how expensive healthy, unprocessed food is. This is why it is very easy for a lot of us to grab snackable, cheap food and put it in the shopping cart. This is especially true for people with busy lifestyles, hectic jobs, and curriculums, leading to delayed meal times and unhealthy eating patterns. Here are some ways how online learning and food consumption are related:

Skipping meals because of deadlines

Approaching deadlines can cause a lot of stress and anxiety in students, causing them to skip meals and focus on learning lessons or completing assignments. The most commonly skipped meal among students since the start of online learning is breakfast. Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day and helps keep us healthy and balanced.

Shift from home-cooked meals to frozen, pre-cooked, or takeout meals

Ever since COVID-19, we have seen a huge uptick in the number of food delivery services in every single state. Whether it is UberEats, Grubhub, Postmates, or DoorDash, a lot of young students now prefer ordering out since they don’t have the time to meal prep or cook an entire meal. It takes up more time and healthy, unprocessed ingredients are getting more difficult to afford.

Lesser time to chew food well and digest properly

With the lack of difference in work and home environments, students feel immense pressure to complete school or college work on time, leading to late nights and lesser time for personal life. Nowadays, a lot of students rely on research paper services that do their assignments in a professional and efficient manner. Even so, students eat really fast, chew less, and make it harder for their bodies to digest the meals they’re eating.

Increase in consumption of sugar, coffee, etc

Another phenomenon that has been on the rise since online learning and work-from-home is the consumption of coffee. Caffeine, when consumed excessively, isn’t good for the human body. We have also begun consuming more and more sugar in our beverages as the frequency of having a drink – whether it is a tea, a coffee, a juice, or a soft drink – has increased.

Fewer, less spread-out meals in the day

Young students need important brain food to help with memory and concentration. Skipping meals, in the long run, leads to our appetites getting lower and our stomachs not feeling full. This in turn has contributed to a rise in snacking and binge-eating whatever we find. A lot of students also stay hungry for most of the day and end up eating late at night, creating an unhealthy eating habit that doesn’t let the food digest by the time they go to bed.

A Few Concluding Thoughts – Decline in overall Health and Nutrition

Because of the above-mentioned points, there has been an overall decline in the health and nutrition of students. People’s relationship with food has changed entirely over the last few years and a lot of it is mainly because of the changes in lifestyle. Although this is a difficult rut to get out of, you can slowly start eating healthier and try prioritizing your health over school deadlines. Take one step at a time and you will get there.

About the Author – Carl Hill

Carl Hill is a freelance food blogger, critic, cookbook editor, and marketer. He started his writing career as a journalist but his passion for food eventually led him to take up blogging about food. He travels around the world to try the indigenous cuisines of different geographies and writes about them. Finding family-owned restaurants that serve sustainably produced local food is the favorite part of his job. He writes articles on various food consumption habits occasionally.