The dietary interview was held at the university’s food science lab, and trained research assistants were presented to assist in collecting interview data. Participants must report all the foods and beverages that were consumed in the past 24-HRs, from midnight to midnight, for a total of 3 days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day). Photographs of portion size regarding different foods were provided as aids to help researchers correct dietary report. Students who consumed their meals from cafeteria or the street food stands near school would be asked to report the name of the dishes and restaurants in order for our research assistants to purchase the same dishes and to calculate their nutrition contents. The collected foods were categorized into eight food categories: cereals and tubers, fruits, vegetables, eggs, aquatic product, meat and poultry, soybeans and nuts, and milk and dairy products, in order to compare with the Chinese Dietary Guidelines which were often presented as Chinese Food Pagoda (CFP) (Figure 1). We compared students’ actual dietary intake with CFP (Figure 1) and WHO [12] recommended Healthy diet.

The IPAQ questionnaire, a widely used questionnaire to evaluate adults’ (aged 18 - 65 yrs) PA, consists of two different forms, a long-form and a short form. The validities and reliabilities of the IPAQ questionnaire in different languages have been examined and the results were in disagreement [13]. However, report from Macfarlane D.J. et al., [14] indicated that the IPAQ-short (IPAQ-SF) form was acceptable to use for Chinese adults, but caution is needed. Our study utilized the IPAQ-SF Chinese version, and the questionnaire was converted into an online survey which was available for all the participants. The IPAQ-SF contains

9 items and measured four levels of activity including vigorous intensity, moderate intensity, walking, and sitting [15].

Identified variables including participants’ BMI, gender, major, family monthly household incomes, and place of household registration (rural or urban) were collected as they could affect students’ eating habits. The One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the influence of the above-mentioned variables on the intakes of the eight different food groups. To analyze students’ sodium and milk intake, we performed student’s t-test and Chi-squire. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney was applied to analyze participants’ physical activity. The statistical software SPSS 26.0 was used for data analysis.

A total of 122 students, 35 males (28.69%) and 87 females (71.31%), participated in this study. Details of their demographic information were shown in Table 1.

Results of our research indicated participants’ daily food intake were not complied with the Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommendation (Figure 1) to prevent chronic diseases. Compared to the Chinese Dietary Guidelines (Figure 1), students consumed more cereals and tubers, meat and poultry, and soybeans and nuts. Meanwhile, they consumed much fewer vegetables, milk and dairy product, fruits, eggs, and aquatic products on average for both males and females. Details of the differences between the actual food consumption and the recommendation were presented in Table 2.

The χ² test depicted a significant correlation between BMI and the intake of aquatic product group (p = 0.008). Gender was strongly correlated with the intake of cereals and tubers (p = 0.003), aquatic product (p = 0.009), and meat and poultry (p = 0.048) group; there was a strong relationship between students’ major and eggs consumption (p = 0.032).

We performed a one-way ANOVA to examine the effects of students’ BMI, gender, major, family monthly income, and place of household registration on different food groups’ consumption. Students’ BMI had no influence on their food intakes of fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat and poultry, and soybeans and nuts groups. However, BMI showed significant differences on cereals and tubers (F(3, 118) = 3.485, p < 0.05) and aquatic product (F(3, 118) = 3.708, p < 0.05) consumption. Obese students ate more cereals and nuts and aquatic product compared to other students. Gender also exhibited great influence on the consumption of cereals and tubers (F(1, 120) = 28.464, p < 0.05), aquatic product (F(1, 120) =

7.774, p < 0.05), and meat and poultry (F(1, 120) = 21.066, p < 0.05). Compared to females, males consumed more on all food groups. Participants’ academic major was another variable that affect participants’ fruit intake (F(1, 120) = 5.640, p < 0.05); non-food science major students ate more fruits compared to food science major students. Family monthly income had no influence on any type of food consumption. For the place of household registration, students who were from urban cities consumed more eggs compared to those who lived in rural areas (F(1, 120) = 4.03, p < 0.05).

When analyzing different variables on milk and dairy product consumption, results from t-test indicated students who were obese, male, non-food science major, family monthly income 1000 to 1500, and lived in urban cities had higher milk and dairy product intake.

For fat consumption, both males and females met the WHO recommendation (no more than 30% of daily energy from fat) [12]. On average, females consumed 59.99 g of fat, and 74.93 g for males. For sodium intake, 74.6% of participants met the recommended amount that proposed by WHO, and 25.4% did not meet with the recommendation. Students’ BMI, gender, major, family monthly income, and place of household registration had no influence on the amount of sodium intake.

The results showed the median PA levels were 491.25 (MET min/wk), 300.21 (MET min/wk), 856.43 (MET min/wk), and 1647.91 (MET min/wk) for vigorous, moderate, walking, and total PA, respectively. The median sitting hours were 6.57 (h). Males were significantly more active than females. The non-food science major students had significantly higher PA levels than the food science students. For adults aged 18 to 64 years old, the physical activity guidelines for Chinese recommended 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity per week [16]. Participants’ levels of PA exceed the recommended PA (see Table 3).

^aIQR: interquartile range = P75 - P25, ^bVPA: vigorous physical activity, ^cMPA: Moderate physical activity, ^dTPA: Total physical activity.