Poor eating habits are an important public health issue that has
large health and economic implications. Many food preferences
are established early, but because people make more and more
independent eating decisions as they move through adolescence,
the transition to independent living during the university days is
an important event. To study the phenomenon of food selection,
the heath belief model was applied to predict the likelihood of
healthy eating among university students. Structural equation
modeling was used to investigate the validity of the health belief
model (HBM) among 194 students, followed by gender-based
analyses. The data strongly supported the HBM. Social change
campaign implications are discussed.