“You know how the dining hall has all those snacks?” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jake Angelastro. “I usually bring back goldfish or whatever, or cookies. Because it’s whatever I can fit in a little plastic baggie!”
He held up a Ziploc filled with, by his estimate, five to six cookies and a brownie.
“I don’t eat it all in one night,” he said. “Unless I get depressed or lonely. But I also bring in an apple and banana after breakfast.”
But Angelastro is beginning to get anxious. Even though he said he tries to eat healthy most of the time, he is curious to see if his snacking has had an adverse effect.
“I worry that all my snacks have high sodium,” he said, adding that he is considering going down to Student Health Services to get his cholesterol levels checked.
College students may think they are immune to such problems, but 9.5 percent of men and 10.3 percent of women aged 20 to 34 have high cholesterol, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
High total cholesterol levels, defined as 240 mg/dL and above, double a person’s risk of heart disease, according to the CDC.
Many students say they are not surprised by the numbers.
“At school you’re not really eating like you would if your mom was watching out for you,” said School of Management freshman Traci Hertzberg. “It’s about the choices you make, how you choose to live your life.”
Hertzberg said one of her best friends has high cholesterol.
“He knows it, but he takes steps to overcome it,” she said. Cholesterol tends to rise with age, but other factors may explain high cholesterol in young people, including diabetes, obesity, a poor diet and a lack of exercise, according to the CDC.
Genetics also play a key role &- familial hypercholesterolemia, for instance, is a genetic condition that can lead to high levels of harmful cholesterol from a young age.
However, most students tend to attribute high cholesterol in young adults to an unhealthy diet. Foods that can raise bad cholesterol, according to the CDC, are high in saturated fat, trans fat, dietary cholesterol or triglycerides.
CAS sophomore Jared Reed said it is easy to keep a low cholesterol level at BU.
“They try to make well-balanced meals, so as long as you eat the entrees, you’re fine,” he said.
Reed said he recently had his cholesterol tested and knows his levels are normal.
“You would assume someone our age would be informed about nutrition,” said CAS sophomore Suzanne Lin. “I think most people have some kind of health class required in high school.”
Lin tries to be especially conscious about what she eats, avoiding saturated fats and picking out lean foods. She believes that her cholesterol is at a healthy, normal level, but even she occasionally makes exceptions.
“Today I’m having a sourdough sandwich with ham and cheese,” Lin said. “And I know it’s grilled with butter.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
