College Students’ Health
With a fast pace lifestyle including full-time college courses, employment and a social life, college students tend to forget to eat. College students turn to fad diets to maintain their body image. Meal prepping and planning can help a college student’s health stay optimal.
Poor Dietary Choices
How many times do you go through a fast-food drive-thru in a week? According to a campus culture survey, college students eat fast-food meals at least 6 to 8 times per week. Why, because it is so very convenient. But, can we say unhealthy?
College students top five frequently visited fast food restaurants are Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Chick-Fil-A, and Arby’s. According to college students, Taco Bell is the top ‘go to’ because they stay open extremely late. On weekends, they’re open as late as 2am. It’s all about convenience when you’re eating as a college student.
I have great news! These fast food restaurants all have healthy options. Who knew! You don’t have to make poor dietary choices as a college student.
Fast-food options don’t have to be unhealthy. Right! Every fast-food chain has healthy options and they are just as budget friendly as the unhealthy options. Here’s an example, Taco Bell is the ultimate, number one choice, for fast food by college students.
Probably the unhealthiest thing on the menu is a Cheesy Gordita Crunch Supreme coming in with 520 calories, 29 g fat (11 g saturated fats, unhealthy fats), 870 mg sodium, 43 g carbs (5 g fiber, 4 g sugar) and 20 g protein (which isn’t bad).
Now, here’s probably the healthiest choice Chicken Power Bowl coming in with 500 calories, 20 g fat (healthy fats), 1,230 mg sodium (ask for sauces on the side), 54 carbs (8 g fiber, 2 g sugar) 27 g protein (lean protein).
The Cleveland Clinic states up to 10% of your daily calories should be saturated fat. Therefore, the Cheesy Gordita Crunch Supreme already has half of your daily saturated fat in one. Not what college students want to hear, right?
College Students Not Eating
Yes, you read that right. According to researchers from Temple University, 36% of students who were surveyed at 66 different colleges do not get enough to eat. The prevalence of college hunger is more widespread than people realize.
Ends Don’t Meet
Sadly, the number one reason is because they can’t make their ends meet. Most college students usually only work part-time jobs. They barely have enough money to even bother writing out a budget (more about this later, should we tag this for our bank and budgeting blog). Think about it, college students work minimal hours for minimum wage. Can you survive on that?
Simply Too Busy
The other reason is that they simply get too busy. Being an adult with a full-time job is busy. Just think about a full class load that starts at 8:00am and goes until 2:00pm.
Study groups run about an hour or two. Then you must be at work by 4:00pm and not get off till 9-10:00pm. Plus, you must get to and from places. Are you tired yet? Hungry? I am just thinking about it.
Turning to Fad Diets
College students look to fit in. Social Media and advertisements give a lot of hype to being skinny. Therefore, making students want to try every new fad diet that comes out, whether it’s healthy or not.
There is so much peer pressure to looking a certain way. We all want to look skinnier than the person we’re standing by, sitting by or hanging out with. So, of course, we want to look the best that we can which sometimes comes with a price on their mental health.
College students have just moved out from the comforts of home and high school. They will now be living in a totally new environment. They walk into college and it’s a whole new world.
Being new to college sends some students into a generalized anxiety state of mind. Because of this anxiety, they are thinking with emotions instead of thinking with wisdom, but they are young.
Losing control
Fad diets can spiral out of control quickly. Studies prove that this can lead to yo-yo dieting. This can lead to dehydration and undernourishment. According to a Ball State University study they found that one third of the females had tried a fad diet; that’s roughly 33 out of 100 women.
Five worst fad diets that college students turned to in 2019 are the lemon detox diet, the acid alkaline diet, the six weeks to OMG diet, the cabbage soup diet, and the eat all you want diet. Four out of these five fad diets encourage you to avoid eating certain foods. The one diet that wants you to eat is the eat all you want diet thus causing you to lose interest in food altogether. Yeah, how’s that working out for you?
All these fad diets promise you one thing, to lose weight. They don’t promise you that you’ll be healthy. They don’t promise that you’ll be satiated and full. As a matter of fact, they cause more damage than they do good. Experts strongly suggest that you stay away from fad diets.
On the Healthier Side
College students can eat healthy and cheap. You don’t have to diet in order to eat healthy and maintain a peer pressured body image.
Cooking Quickly for Optimal Health
There are so many wonderful ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle. When you hear the words healthy lifestyle many people’s first thought is expensive. Good news! It doesn’t have to be. The world wide web is full of healthy recipes that even college students can make on their meager budgets. (Sam can we tie this into our grocery shopping blog somehow?)
Cooking Crockpot Style
Crockpots are the bomb-diggity. First, they are cheap. Walmart has a 2-Quart Crock Pot for only $9.96. Second, you can dump and go. Third, they cook while you’re gone, if you plug them in and set the cook temp and timer. Crockpots make meal prepping easy peasy and you’ll have leftovers for days.
Here’s an idea, buy a cheap roast (your choice of pork or beef) add a couple of cups of water and pour in a bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce. Plug the crockpot in, turn it on and set it for however long you’re going to be gone; usually high for four hours or low for six hours (depends on your schedule). Buy some hamburger buns. When the roast is done it’ll shred easily and then you have a barbeque sandwich. Heck yeah, go buy you a big bag of chips to go with it. How easy and cheap is that?
Cooking Microwave Style
Microwaves are second best. Walmart has a small microwave for $39.99; perfect for dorm rooms. Frozen dinners are cheap, and microwaves cook them in minutes. Healthy Choice has several frozen dinner options for as low as $2.98 a meal. Hint, hint! That’s cheaper than any fast food meal.
These home cooking options free up so much time that you’ll get hooked on them. You’ll bypass every fast food chain and head straight home. The savory smells will greet you when you walk through your front door.
Plain Old Oven
A plain old oven or a toaster oven are third best. You can buy a five-pound bag of frozen chicken breasts for $9.76. There is enough in this bag to last you for a week. Thaw the breasts, season them with your favorite seasonings and cook on 350 degrees until done (about 20-30 minutes). Serve these up with some fresh raw, steamed or baked veggies. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.
You can even do this with fresh meats that have been placed on sale. Grocery stores are always putting packages of beef and pork on sale. Make the most of you’re buying power. You can’t go wrong with a healthy lifestyle.