Search for “Eating Healthy” on Google and it instantly suggests “Eating healthy on a budget,” as if it knows your wallet is getting as tight as your swimsuit.
Eating healthy and college student are often considered an oxymoron; they go together like water and oil or beer and bananas. But eating healthy doesn’t have to pillage the bank account, meaning college students can afford it too.
Now, don’t go trading in your significant other for an organically grown pomegranate or anything, but shop around; go out, compare prices and offerings. Hunt through the ads and cut coupons.
“I think that if you are on a budget and plan accordingly you can afford healthy eating habits,” Kaitlyn Burgett, an Eastern Michigan University junior, said. “I look in the ads for sales. Busch’s, from where I am from, on Thursdays have bananas for really cheap.”
Grabbing a Sunday paper packed full of ads is a great start to seeking out deals and coupons. Kroger has tomatoes on sale for 97 cents a pound, so if you hurry you can cash in on making some tomato soup or whatever you use tomatoes for.
But what if drudging from shopping center to shopping center isn’t your thing? What if grabbing a quick bite on your way home is more your style? For many students McDonalds and Burger King aren’t just eating establishments, but solid, fat-filled sections of their daily food pyramid.
If you’re smart you can still aim for the healthy side of things when you want to grab-and-go a meal.
“I try to stay away from McDonalds,” said Adam Keller, a Jackson Community College student who was in the Ypsilanti area, “I really enjoy subway.”
With time on the short side, fast food is often the only answer. McDonalds does offer salads now, even if their premium southwest salad with grilled chicken packs 430 calories without the dressing and stale bread.
Subway might seem like the more educated choice in the fast-food face-off, but many of their subs weigh in at 300 or more calories. Their salads don’t crack more than 200 calories though, compared to McDonalds 430 -calorie farm animal shrubbery.
“I have a couple of sandwiches [at Subway] that are pretty healthy as long as they aren’t loaded with mayo and a ton of cheese,” Keller said.
When deciding whether to add bacon, eight kinds of cheeses, mayonnaise, ranch dressing and four types of meat to a sandwich, please back away for your heart’s sake.
Skimp on (or skip) the ranch, bacon, etc. and anything else known to cause arteriole fatigue. Substitute those choices with make a palate pleasing collaboration of vegetables and add a splash of low-fat dressing. Sometimes the best way to start a healthy living style is by making easy substitutions.
Eastern Michigan University’s Snow Health Center recommends contacting the Office of Nutrition Services for some healthy eating tips, which is open Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the spring term.
Healthy eating varies for everyone. While a diet coke added to the double cheeseburger with extra bacon and a large fry, might be as far as some venture into the healthier options realm, others look at it differently.
“To me there are varying degrees of healthy,” said Tyler Scheuerman, a sophomore at Oakland University. “For example a regular banana is pretty healthy, but it’s usually grown via unrealistic methods and with large amounts of chemicals. Therefore, an organic banana is healthier than a regular banana.”
Even if there are varying degrees of healthy to most people, many try to stay away from processed foods high in sodium, fat, and misleading content labels.
Whitney Hastings, a student at Washtenaw Community College, said she considers healthy food to be “natural foods, not processed frozen foods or meals.”
The main things to remember when trying to maintain a healthy diet are budget,
hunt the ads and skimp the extra fatty items when ordering out.
