Okay… So to start off I have no knowledge of the nitty-gritty stuff regarding college life as I don’t have any siblings, my father dropped out, and my mom had a less than traditional experience as she was an international.
So my question is, how easy is it to eat well in college?
I’ve been hoping that college will be the point in my life that I’ll be able to eat something good on my meal plan as opposed to whatever is convenient and quick in my kitchen at home like I do now. Is it that simple though? After all, the dreaded freshman 15 supposedly exists.
Thank you in advance!
I felt that if my school had enough money to buy LCD TVs for their cafeteria menus, they had enough menus to hire a dietitian to review the daily menus. I considered the 1 entree 2 sides 1 drink for lunch/dinner was healthier than anything I would cook up myself. The freshman 15 is caused by the increased freedom to eat wherever you want, whenever you want. Plenty of students at my campus had unlimited “5 free wings” coupons for the local wings place. Don’t eat at a wings place 3 days a week, and you should be good on avoiding the freshman 15.
This will be heavily dependent on your individual school on what’s available. My school, for example, had a large area with many options for food. There was an Italian section, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-a, Chinese food, salad bar, sandwich bar, ‘food-of-the-day’ bar, and a few others, I’m sure. The section that had different foods every day was like a salad bar in that it was pay by the ounce and there were a lot of different options for meat, vegan, sides, dessert, etc. Most of this food was pretty healthy, so if you were to eat there every day and mind your portion size, you’d probably dodge the ‘freshman 15.’
Also, keep your intake of sweets low. Students on my campus loved to drink their fancy Starbucks drinks that had 500+ calories per drink from all the sugar in it. You have a few of those a day along with other foods and you’re gonna put on weight.
I find that having a kitchen makes me eat better because I cook. At dining halls, the options end up being unhealthier than cooking myself. Might be in the minority here though.