As students return to school and families re-establish routines, conversations about meals, snacks, and healthy habits become a greater focus. Technology has become one of the key ways teens and young adults learn about food, nutrition, and cooking.^1-3 Nearly all US teenagers report using the internet daily, and social media platforms are increasingly influencing food choices, meal ideas, and perceptions of health.⁴ At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming common resources for recipe generation, meal planning, and answering nutrition questions.⁴ As students head back to school and college, healthcare professionals have an opportunity to help them develop healthy eating habits while also improving their digital nutrition literacy.

Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to help young people and families navigate this digital landscape. Rather than discouraging technology use, providers can encourage students to use online resources thoughtfully while directing them toward evidence-based nutrition information. Social media and AI may actually expand opportunities for health care providers to support nutrition literacy and practical food skills.^5,6

Nutrition Priorities During the School and College Years

The transition back to school or into college often brings major changes in eating habits. Class schedules, athletics, extracurricular activities, work responsibilities, and social commitments can make it difficult to prioritize regular meals during back-to-school season. The school year also represents an important period for establishing lifelong habits that support health and reduce future chronic disease risk.

Healthier eating habits – more fruits and veggies, balanced meals that include breakfast, and limiting sugar-sweetened beverages – have been shown to enhance academic performance.^7-9 A large cross- sectional study (N=46,455 adolescents from 42 countries) found that healthier eating habits were associated with better perceived school performance.⁷ After adjusting for factors including socioeconomic status, physical activity, sleep, and screen time, students who ate more fruits and vegetables, consumed breakfast more regularly, ate family meals more often, and consumed fewer sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages were more likely to rate their school performance as very good compared with their classmates.⁷

As the back-to-school routine begins, health care practitioners can encourage a focus on consistent meal timing. Skipping meals, particularly breakfast, remains common among adolescents and college students despite evidence linking regular breakfast consumption with improved concentration, memory, academic performance, and overall diet quality. Recent research indicates that up to 60% of students skip breakfast or eat it only once per week, and this behavior is associated with lower grades.⁹ A cross- sectional study (N=61,825 students in grades 4-12) found that skipping breakfast was associated with lower cognitive and emotional engagement at school.⁸ After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, health, and sleep factors, students who always skipped breakfast reported lower cognitive engagement, weaker relationships with teachers, and poorer perceptions of the school environment than those who regularly ate breakfast.⁸ A balanced breakfast that includes protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates can promote sustained energy while supporting satiety throughout the morning for optimal learning.^7,8

Lunches and snacks also deserve attention. Portable meals that include protein and fiber, such as Greek yogurt with fruit, hummus and vegetables, roasted chickpeas, trail mix, cottage cheese, edamame, portable protein drinks, or peanut butter with whole grain crackers, can help students maintain energy between classes while reducing reliance on highly processed convenience foods.^7,9

If a young adult (18+) in your life needs help calculating their protein needs, check out Orgain’s protein calculator so they can personalize their needs to their lifestyle.

Learning to Eat Well on Your Own

As students gain independence and autonomy, many begin making food decisions with little previous experience.^10,11 Academic stress, financial limitations, changing and shared living arrangements, and campus food environments can all contribute to poorer diet quality.¹¹ During high school and college, many students start grocery shopping or buying their own food for the first time, possibly navigating unlimited dining hall options or preparing meals in shared apartments or dormitories – transitions that provide valuable teaching opportunities for healthcare professionals.

Technology can support practical food skills at the start by helping students learn basic meal planning, grocery shopping, and food preparation as they head out on their own.³ Encouraging young adults to identify a handful of familiar, inexpensive, balanced meals they enjoy can plan for, shop to, and execute on their own increases confidence while reducing decision fatigue during busy academic schedules.

College dining halls also require new decision-making skills. Studies show that taste is the largest driver of student food choices, followed closely by food availability and cost.¹² Studies have found that higher intakes of sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars are consistently associated with poorer overall dietary quality in college students.¹² Rather than encouraging restriction or focusing on avoiding weight gain, providers can help students build balanced plates by including lean protein, vegetables or fruit, whole grains, and healthy fats as much as possible, with a focus on health, energy levels, and desire to optimize learning. A flexible approach supports adequate nutrition while allowing room for social events and favorite foods.

Budget considerations are important for many young students. Recent reviews suggest that an estimated 33% to 51% of college students experience food insecurity. Screening for food insecurity and connecting students with campus and community resources can help support both health and educational outcomes.¹³ Teaching patients how to compare unit prices, use frozen produce, purchase canned beans, and prepare simple meals at home can improve nutrition while minimizing food costs, making good nutrition more affordable for students.

Learn more about feeding teens in a recent episode on The Good Clean Nutrition Podcast with expert Beth McCall.

Social media as an educational resource

Though social media can be a source of nutrition misinformation, it can also increase access to evidence- based education when used correctly.^3,6 Recipe videos, cooking demonstrations, grocery shopping tips, and meal-preparation tutorials can help build cooking confidence and expose learners to a wider variety of foods and culinary options.

Healthcare professionals can encourage young adults to follow registered dietitians, chefs, and cooking shows to learn the basics of food prep, knife skills, and cooking. They can advise academic medical centers, universities, and evidence-based professional organizations such as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Association, which regularly share science-based nutrition information. These sources can help counterbalance the large volume of nutrition content produced by individuals without appropriate training.

Equally important is teaching digital health literacy. Beyond just the technical ability to search for and use information, digital literacy includes the skills needed to critically evaluate online information, navigate digital tools, and confidently engage with digital resources.¹⁴ Digital health literacy is the ability to find, understand, evaluate, and apply online health information to make informed health decisions.¹⁴ Healthcare providers can encourage young adults to develop these skills by thinking critically about who created the content, whether scientific evidence supports the recommendations, whether claims seem exaggerated, and whether the advice promotes balanced eating rather than fear or restriction.¹⁴ Helping adolescents and young adults recognize common signs of misinformation empowers them to make more informed decisions in the future.

Using AI as a Nutrition Education Tool

AI is rapidly becoming part of students’ everyday lives and offers potential for practical applications in nutrition education.^3,6,15 AI platforms can generate meal plans, suggest recipes based on available ingredients, create grocery shopping lists, recommend healthy substitutions, and explain basic nutrition concepts in an accessible format.¹⁵ For students learning to cook or manage meals independently, these tools can reduce barriers to healthy eating.

Healthcare professionals should emphasize that AI is intended to complement, not replace, individualized nutrition counseling.¹⁶ AI cannot fully account for complex medical histories, food allergies, cultural preferences, athletic goals, medications, or chronic health conditions. Personalized recommendations should continue to come from qualified healthcare professionals who can interpret nutrition science within the context of each patient’s unique needs.16 Encouraging patients to use AI as a brainstorming tool while confirming health information with trusted healthcare providers maximizes its benefits while minimizing potential risks.

Key Takeaways for Practitioners

Technology, including social media and AI is likely to remain a primary source of nutrition information for adolescents and young adults into the future.⁶ Rather than discouraging the use of social media and AI, healthcare professionals can incorporate discussions about these tools into nutrition counseling.

Asking patients which websites, apps, or digital tools they already use provides insight into their current knowledge and creates opportunities to reinforce credible information or correct misconceptions.¹⁷

Ultimately, technology is most effective when paired with practical, sustainable nutrition habits.^6,17 Encouraging student clients to regularly include protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and healthy fats, while developing simple meal-preparation skills, can support both academic success and longer-term health. Small, achievable habits, like preparing breakfast the night before a busy day, packing balanced snacks for class or a commute, or using AI to create a grocery list or recipe ideas for the week, may have the greatest impact.

As technology continues to evolve, healthcare professionals play an important role in helping adolescents and young adults become informed consumers of nutrition information.

References:

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