Eating through College
So you’ve finally made it. You fought for the grades, you applied your heart out, and after 13 or 14 years of education you’re on your way to university at last. Going to a school that isn’t in the neighbourhood is a big change in the life of anyone, if you’re like most students this will be your first experience of living alone. It’s a scary thought, the last thing you want is for this new experience to jeopardize your health in some way.
Now that Mom and Dad aren’t covering the nutritional basics in your meals, you’ll need to figure out how to find the right balance while navigating your school’s campus and the surrounding area. Not only that, but you have to find the right diet on ‘hard mode’, since if you’re like most college students, you probably don’t have tons of money! Contrary to popular belief, eating healthy and cheap is not about choosing the ‘perfect’ specific foods, and it’s also not about eating Mr. Noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can eat cheap and still eat a variety of healthy foods, your diet-on-a-budget is very customizable to your own tastes! See, what actually allows for a healthy, tasty, and cheap diet is a simple understanding of cooking. You can go a long way with knowledge of a few principles — principles such as:
- Spicing: Don’t try to carry all your flavor with fat or sugar, learning to spice can be a huge benefit to your health!
- Buying in bulk: It may seem like you’re spending a lot in the moment, but buying in bulk will actually save tons of money! Maybe change your grocery store from Fresco to Costco, and make sure to put a lot of thought into your purchases!
- Prepare your meals ahead of time: learning to think ahead is the best skill you can adapt when trying to eat healthy and cheap. Don’t catch yourself eating out, since it’s typically both unhealthy and expensive. Also, if you learn to make slow-cooker or crock-pot meals, you’ll find that just a few ingredients can go a long way to create a delicious and easy supper
- Find coupons and sales: pretty strait-forward, if you start to save a couple bucks every grocery trip you make, it adds up very quickly.
Eating healthy is a balancing act, not only must you balance your intake of minerals, carbs, and every other nutrient, but you also need to balance when you get your energy (calories) from! Assuming you’re older than 19, you should get the following percentage of daily calories from carbs, fat, or protein:
This means that, now you’re 19, you need to get more calories from protein than ever before! Protein high foods are eggs, meats, and beans which are also very cheap while meats can get very expensive.
Fortunately for us, Health Canada has put out a wonderful food guide to help us keep our balance. This food guide takes all minerals and calories into account, and breaks it down into four simple groups: Vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives. Assuming you’re a male between the ages of 19 and 30, here is how much of each group you should eat each day:
Fruits and Veggies
· A male college student needs a whole 10 Fruits and Veggies daily — that’s an awful lot! To meet this health standard, you’ll need to learn how to integrate fruits and veggies into your meals, as well as begin eating them as a snack.
· Perhaps you’ll want to add an apple or banana to your breakfast — maybe even two. Maybe throw some berries onto your cereal. You could pack a salad with your lunch. If you’re making something like soup, why not throw in some extra celery or potatoes. Apples, grapes, bananas and carrots are most likely your cheapest options for fruits and vegetables.
· You’ll save even more money is you get your fruits and berries frozen, since they usually run $2.99-$5.99 per pound. Throw them into a blender and make a great healthy treat!
· Something that will help with saving you money is knowing when different fruits are in season, follow this guide to get a better understanding of when to buy certain fruits.
Grain Products
· How do you get 8 servings of grains? PASTA AND RICE! Pasta and rice might just be your savior throughout your life in university. If you think Mr. Noodles is a good, cheap option, then get ready to have your world flipped upside down.
· You can get extremely cheap bulk rice and dried Ramen if you visit your local ‘ethnic’ shop. They will have 5kg bags of rice or dried ramen/noodles for a much lower price than the equivalent in Ramen boxes.
· Pasta and rice provide a lovely texture and carbs in the form of starch. However, if you want your pasta to taste great, then you’re going to have to learn the basics of how to use spice — more on that later.
You can also attain grains through items like bagels, cereal, bread, muffins and waffles, but you’ll have to be careful not to eat too much sugar and fat with your grain products.
Milk and Alternatives
· You don’t need to incorporate too much dairy into your daily diet, and dairy is something that is very easy to find
· Get your dairy through items like milk, yogurt, and cheese. When buying milk, the cheapest and healthiest option will always be the skim or low-fat options; I highly recommend these. When buying yogurt, try buying it in quarts, as single servings will be more expensive
Meat and Alternatives
Getting good meat for dinner is typically the most expensive part of a diet. If you go out for supper you can spend upwards of $20 on expensive meats such as steaks and ribs. However, don’t take “and Alternatives” lightly! You can get the same benefits of meat through other foods that are far cheaper. For example, you can get a full dozen of eggs (6 meat servings) for under $2! Also, if beans are bought in bulk, a whole cup can come to only $0.30 and a third of a cup is one serving! So, if you were to have your total daily 3 servings of meat in just baked beans, it would only cost you $0.90!
Realize the Reality of Alcohol
Each beer can average about 150 calories. Drink about five or six of those and you’re quickly approaching 1,000 calories of a substance that does absolutely no good for your health. Add the typical late night drunk munchies binge, and here you’ve got a great recipe for weight gain.
Not to mention the effects a night of drinking has on the following day. Some people feel the effects of a hangover for a full 24 hours, and a trip to the gym isn’t often the first thing on your mind when you feel like crap.
Many students won’t give up the social scene that comes with a night of drinking. So, a great way to combat the inevitable weight gain that comes with alcohol would be to plan ahead. When you know you’ll be heading out for the night, try to fit in some extra time and harder work at the gym.
Water
Water is an essential nutrient, make sure you treat it as such! Get in a habit of carrying around a reusable water bottle everywhere you go, it will greatly increase the amount of water you drink! Water carries a multitude of benefits, including:
· Revs up your metabolism, and helps you feel full. This can cause you to eat less and subsequently drink less calorie-dense drinks.
· Fights dehydration, giving you energy and allowing your heart to pump your blood more effectively.
· Water also prevents muscle cramping and lubricates the body. You can exercise longer and stronger without “hitting the wall” when you’re hydrated.
· Water is also great for your skin, as it hydrates skin cells and plumps them up, making your face look younger.
· Water helps dissolve waste particles and passes them smoothly through your digestive tract. This helps you keep your regular
Your two-day meal plan!
Now that we’ve covered the essentials of healthy eating on a budget, let’s put it into practice! Here is an example of a two-day meal plan that is both cheap and healthy!
Day 1
Breakfast
Butter on toast (2 slices), 100% orange juice, apple
Lunch
homemade macaroni and cheese, salad (250ml)
Dinner
Hamburger on a bun, meat loaf (150g), baked potato, green beans (125ml), Low-fat milk (125ml),
Snack
Peanut butter-jelly and banana sandwich, baked beans on toast, tomato juice
Day 2
Breakfast
125ml of strawberries over 60 g mini wheats with 250 mL Low-fat milk, 1 pear
Lunch
Submarine sandwich made with 1 whole wheat bun, 75 g turkey, 125 mL tomato and sliced green peppers, 125 mL baby carrots, 125 mL container of 100% orange juice
Dinner
75 g broiled salmon, 250ml brown rice, 125 mL steamed broccoli, an apple, 250 mL of Tomato Juice
Snack
1 whole wheat bagel and a to-go sausage
