Healthy Hacks: A Caf Quick Guide

Let’s face it- when you’re in college, your greatest priority is probably not healthy eating. You are focused on class work, being involved on campus, hanging out, and let alone trying to eat over-the-top healthy. Luckily for CU students, there are plenty of healthy options for you.

We’ve all heard of the freshman fifteen and as you may know there is some truth to the phrase.  According to a study by Racette, S. Deusinger, Strube, Highstein, and R. Deusinger (2007), 70% of sampled students demonstrated a significant weight gain, around 9 lbs, during their first two years of college. Many of these students admitted to inactivity and unhealthy dietary behaviors, such as not consuming adequate vegetables and fruits and not limiting their consumption of fried and fast foods. In addition to exercise, eating healthy foods will help you obtain and maintain an appropriate weight.

The Libby Alvis Dinning Hall, also known to students as, “The Caf,” is designed to give students options and information.  Did you know there is a link on the Concord website, where you can view menus, compare nutritional information, and find wellness education tips? On this site you can even download an app called, CampusDish for helpful tools on-the-go. Concord’s dining service also has a Nutrition Central board, a digital board on the wall in the Caf that lists your foods’ nutritional facts. These tools will help you get on the right track, but it starts with YOU.

Both healthy and unhealthy options are available almost everywhere you eat. But the path to healthier habits starts with YOU making the right decisions when it comes to available options. For starters, one of the mistakes many students make in their diet is a high soda and juice intake. Just one can of soda has 8 teaspoons of sugar! The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women and 9 for men. Therefore, with only one soda, you’ve reached your recommended max of sugar intake for the day! Replacing those drinks with water will be a huge benefit to your health.

The healthy hack I’ve found most beneficial is loading up your plate with healthy options first, every time. This allows you to fill up on the healthy stuff! When you walk in the Caf—or at any buffet—grab a plate, and load it with vegetables or any fruit available. The mixed veggies, steamed broccoli, corn, or carrots at the hot bar are some of my favorites. After this, I make my way over to the salad bar and either fix a salad or just load up some cold vegetables. Always remember, a little dressing goes a long way, particularly ranch. When it comes to what to put in your salad, I always use tomatoes because of their high level of antioxidants, as well as, peppers, particularly the red variety.  Did you know a red pepper has more than three times the vitamin C as an orange? Who doesn’t need an extra immune system boost?! After the veggies check out what kind of meat, pasta, or other things are available at the “Home Front.” If you like fish, it is always a better option meat-wise, as well as, one of your primary brain foods. 

Another standard poor choice is eating bread or fried foods for every meal. Yes, the cheese fries, chicken patties, and pizza are pretty enticing, but it’s not a good choice for every meal. Did you know that bread not only contains super starches that turn into fat, but it is also addictive and makes you crave more unhealthy foods? An easy way to help avoid over-consumption is to limit yourself to a certain amount each week and keep a mental list of how often you’ve eaten these super starchy items.

Hopefully, with all of these options, eating healthy while being a college student shouldn’t seem like a daunting task. By living a healthier lifestyle you will be more productive, have less stress, age better, live longer, and be happier!

Stay tuned for a future article on workout tips to go along with Healthy Foods for a Healthy You. If you have any more questions about eating healthier, shoot us an email at studentaffairs@concord.edu or contact the CU’s dinning service through the information listed below:

CU’s Dining Services website can be found at concord.campusdish.com. If you have questions about healthy eating, you can contact a dietitian at askthedietitian@aramark.com or Randy Keaton, Dining Services Director, at 304-384-5433 or Keaton-randy@aramark.com. Follow CU’s Dining Services on Instagram @concorddining and Aramark on Twitter @HearMeAramark and on Facebook under Campus Dining.

Written by Holly Woods and Rhian Hobbs