KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS TOWARDS HEALTHY EATING AMONG MEMBERS OF STAFF IN ACHIEVERS UNIVERSITY OWO, ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Introduction: Healthy eating habits are simple and low risk methods essential to promote and improve well-being and life expectancy, Increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables helps to maintain a balance between calorie intake and energy expenditure, it is also necessary to prevent excessive weight gain. Adequate knowledge of nutrition is believed to influence not just the decisions about food choices but also healthy lifestyles. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and belief of healthy eating among members of Achievers University, Owo. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design and quantitative method for data collection. A sample of 277 respondents were obtained with Taro Yamane’s formula and they were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Data collection was done with a self-developed semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The result of this study revealed that 24.2% of the respondent belongs to ages 39-48, 21.4% were ages 29-38, 17.1% were ages 18-28years while 16.3% were within ages 59-68. The study further revealed Majority of the respondents 169 (61.0%) had good knowledge of Healthy eating, 67 (24.2%) had fair knowledge of Healthy eating while minority 41 (14.8%) had poor knowledge of healthy eating. Also, majority (68.1%) of the staffs had Good beliefs towards healthy eating while less than one-third (31.9%) of them had Poor beliefs towards healthy eating. Conclusion : It was concluded from this study that a high level of knowledge of healthy eating have been shown by the respondents and majority of the respondent have positive belief about healthy eating