College students balance school, work and, sometimes, athletics. We often feel overwhelmed and think that we have no spare time to eat or even sleep. However, finding the time for healthy food and rest in this busy time of life is very important for our health and should be prioritized.
Many of us lack the knowledge about what it means to eat a healthy diet.\
Marilyn Gordon, a certified nutritionist at NSU, said that being physically active and getting enough rest is necessary for our health, but a healthy diet is essential to our overall well-being.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, good nutrition is also essential for our mental health. Gordon agreed that good nutrition is extremely important because it helps our physical body as well as our brains.
Students often create bad eating habits because it can take work to look for healthy options, and we are busy with schoolwork.
Anastasia Rubel, junior political science major said, “I usually just choose whatever I feel like eating.”
But many of us also lack the knowledge to make healthy choices. To combat this, here are five pieces of advice Gordon has for adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Eat a balanced diet
Gordon said that a healthy diet consists of, at least, two servings of fruit every day, three cups of vegetables and something rich in calcium, at least, three times a day.
She also pointed out that it is important to get an intake of Omega-3s, which are healthy fats, not the kind we find in chips. We need an equivalent of a tablespoon a day, which can best be found in fresh avocado or peanut butter.
Gordon said that we should also add some type of whole grain to our diets and eat a minimum of three servings of it a day.
“It sounds like a lot, but it really is not,” she said. “Because one serving is like traditional bread, half a cup of cereal or maybe six crackers, so it is not difficult to get three servings.”
Plan
Gordon emphasized that students often make mistakes in planning, especially when they are freshmen.
She said that lack of planning might be the biggest mistake that students make when it comes to healthy eating.
“Students come from home where their meals were planned and somebody was thinking ahead and had their food ready. They did not realize how lovely that was,” she said.
Gordon said that students often put off eating, and before we realize it, it is late afternoon, and then we grab whatever is closest to us.
Carlee Rizzolo, senior legal studies major, agreed with Gordon.
“Often, I forget that I have not eaten for a while because I am so busy,” she said.
It is important that we stay on top of our eating habits and make the effort to set aside time for eating.
Avoid “diets”
Gordon discourages any form of fad diet.
“Let’s say someone has an excessive amount of body fat. The way they should approach it is more physical activity and just more attention to healthy eating,” she said.
Gordon said that people often go from one diet to another, such as grapefruit only to no-carb diets, but that is not the way to find healthy eating.
“To me, no diet is a good diet. You just have to focus on eating well and being active,” she said.
Be mindful of social media
For those of us who have a trouble finding time for healthy eating, Gordon suggests we be “mindful of social media.”
Jacob Blackiston, junior communication studies major, said he normally grabs something pre-prepared, like fast food, because he does not have time to cook a healthy meal.
“I must say that often I have to blame myself for spending too much time on social networks chatting with friends, instead of doing something for my health,” Blackiston said.
Gordon said that students truly feel that there is not enough time in their day to balance school and healthy eating and that the real problem is how we prioritize things, such as social media.
“If students looked at the time they spend on social media per day, they would find that that is where their time is going,” Gordon said. “It is hard because even if you turn your phone over, it is still a distraction when it beeps, but, again, students have to be more disciplined and realize that that is where their time has gone.”
Separate studying and eating
We often choose to snack on something to keep ourselves awake while studying, often not realizing how harmful this can be.
“It is such a bad habit. You need to separate those two, because what happens is mindless eating. We can easily go through a whole pack of something while focused on reading,” Gordon said.
Dr. Alex Korb, a neuroscientist researching brain and behavior, explains in his online article that snacking is a created “habitual movement.” Our body does not really care what we chew in our mouths.
“It is mostly satisfied by whatever is closest and easiest. So if you feel like snacking, do something else with your mouth. Chew a gum,” Korb said.
Gordon added that there really is not any type of food that would be good to snack on while studying.
“At some point enough is enough, even of something healthy,” she said.
If we take into consideration these five tips,and make healthy eating a priority our overall well-being will rapidly improve. College is the best time to make healthy lifestyle changes with all of the outstanding opportunities and facilities that NSU offers to students.
