Many college students fall victim to bad eating habits for many reasons. This is mainly because most students are not aware of the benefits of meal-planning opposed to eating fast-food. Some of these benefits are the reduced cost of meal-prepping, countless health benefits, and the amount of time that can be saved by meal-planning.

When you’re in the middle of a study session and your stomach starts to grumble, the first choice of food will likely be some unhealthy fast-food. This occurrence happens all too often. Most students might feel that cooking their own food might take too much time. However, that is not entirely true, there are ways to do this in order to maximize time efficiency. Meal-prepping can be done once or twice weekly, in sessions that should take no longer than one hour. For example, it takes roughly thirty minutes to cook enough chicken breast, to last for four days. And you can bake a pan full of sweet potatoes while you cook the chicken. These two foods provide good examples of the basis for nutritionally complete meals. Along with the main protein and carbohydrate source, you can also eat any desired amount of raw vegetables. These three food choices will be a great way to get started with meal prepping, and you can also supplement with different foods to satisfy your taste.

The reduced cost of meal prepping is also a great factor which should inspire you to pick up the habit. It is no secret that the average college student may struggle with finances. That being said, how nice would it be to save thirty dollars every month. A simple way to do this is to start meal prepping. A study by Oakton Community College calculated that the average cost of eating three fast food meals per day for one week would cost eighty-seven dollars. That is a lot considering many college students have fairly low paying jobs. You can go to the grocery store and buy a pack of chicken breast at roughly one dollar and thirty-nine cents, which means that you would pay between fifteen and twenty dollars for enough chicken breast to last through the week. The sweet potatoes will cost one dollar and eighty-five cents per potato, and for the week you will need roughly eleven of them, so that comes out to roughly twenty-one dollars. This would bring the total cost for the week to right at fifty-six dollars given you spend fifteen on vegetables, which is a generous estimate. Which with tax added in and varying from town to town, the total weekly cost would come out to no more than sixty-two dollars. Which means that you could easily save twenty-five dollars every week just by eating good food.

Perhaps the most important benefit of meal prepping would be the numerous health benefits. Fast food is full of unhealthy cholesterol and sodium. Both of which, are known to lead to cardiovascular diseases. Another nutritional downfall of fast food is the sugar and fat content. Which are known to be associated with liver disease and obesity. The nutrition facts from a typical meal at Burger King shows the high content of all of these values. In a large Burger King Whopper Meal there are 1,620 calories, 70 grams of fat, 2,110 mg of sodium, and 111 grams of sugar. A study by The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion lists the recommended daily intake levels for calories, fat, sodium, and sugar for a young adult female as follows. 2,000 total calories, 70 grams of total fat, 2,300 grams of sodium, and less than 55 grams of sugar. Therefore, three fast-food meals like the one listed earlier would nearly triple the recommended calorie, fat, and sodium levels while providing six times the recommended daily sugar intake. By prepping meals, you can assure that you are within the recommended guidelines. For example, a meal containing one chicken breast, half of a large sweet potato, and one cup of assorted vegetables contains only 415 calories, 4 grams of fat, 17 grams of sugar, and 149 mg. of sodium. This clearly shows that when it comes to health meal prepping is far more beneficial than fast food.

There are healthy alternatives to that bag of Doritos that you’re staring at intensely. For instance, did you know that the university has citrus, peach, and pear fruit trees on campus or that it provides some healthier alternatives in its vending machines? My goal is to advise you on the nutritional benefits of all of the things listed above; starting with the citrus fruit. According to C. Economos and W.D. Clay (1998), the citrus fruit is most commonly associated with vitamin C but it is also rich in carbohydrates for energy, folate which is essential for new cell production and growth, and potassium which helps to maintain the body’s acid and water balance. Next is the peach. A medium sized peach is low on calories (just fifty calories), has no cholesterol or sodium, and has two grams of fiber. It also contains approximately six percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin A and fifteen percent of your vitamin C needs, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s nutrient database. Last but not least is the pear. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s nutrient database, a medium sized pear has one hundred and one calories, no fat, and twenty-seven grams of carbohydrates. In addition, it provides twelve percent of daily vitamin C and ten percent of your daily vitamin K needs. Vitamin K helps the blood to clot, preventing excessive bleeding.

Next, let’s have a chat about the vending machines on campus. Vending machines are wonderful inventions, especially when you cannot afford an entire meal. Most vending machines are filled with unhealthy snacks and are the easiest to go for; however ULL does a good job with keeping healthy options available in the vending machines around campus. The following snacks and beverages are either low fat or fat free. Some even have fiber and protein as well. First up is Planters Sunflower Kernels: one hundred and sixty calories, one and a half grams saturated fat, and four grams of fiber. Next, is Lays Baked! Original: zero saturated fat and 4 grams of fiber (keep in mind though, it has two hundred and ten calories). Third, is Sun Chips Original: one hundred and forty calories, one gram saturated fat, and 2 grams of fiber. Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels comes in at one hundred and ten calories, no fat and no saturated fat. Popcorn is a healthy snack and Smartfood Reduced Fat popcorn is no exception: one hundred and twenty calories, one gram saturated fat, and two grams fiber. Fig Newton’s are a star in the no fat category: one hundred and ninety calories and two grams of fiber. Second to last in the healthy snack food list are Wheat Thins: one hundred and forty calories, two grams fiber and two grams protein. And last on the list are veggie sticks: two grams protein and fifty percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C and twenty-five percent vitamin A. With the veggie sticks, you have to be careful as they are sometimes loaded with calories. There are also healthier choices in the drink machine than the Coke you probably want to order. Water is obviously at the top of the list on most recommended beverage, but if you are feeling like something with some taste to it, Arizona’s Diet Green tea has zero calories and one gram of sugar. This is something you want to avoid in your beverage and in your snacks.

So while the unhealthy foods may be an easier choice simply based off of how fast it is to get them, I urge you to stay away. Go for the healthier options. Meal prep and stay away from fast food when possible. Buy the healthier options in the vending machine, since UL made it easier for us to obtain them! Think smart about what you are putting in your body!

Note: All the nutrition facts listed are taken either from the United States Department of Agriculture’s nutrient database or from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

United States Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). National Nutrient Database. Retrieved from https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?qlookup=&new=1&ds=Standard+Reference

Economos, C. & Clay, W.D. (1998). Nutritional and Health Benefits of Citrus Fruits. Food, Nutrition and Agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/x2650t/x2650t03.htm