College Dining 101

Last night I was talking to a first year student at my university and we got onto the topic of the food at our dining hall. Now the dining hall doesn’t have the worst food in the world, but it is definitely sub-par compared to a home-cooked meal.  With the buffet eating style, it also makes it hard not to have one of everything.  At home, I hardly have dessert after dinner, but when I ate at the dining hall, the multiple ice cream flavors and cake varieties called my name.  Here is some advice I tried to keep in my head while finding the perfect healthy meal:

Don’t forget vegetables! When you’re at school you don’t have your mom reminding you to eat your veggies and could end up loading on the carbs. If your school has a salad bar, start there! This way you know you will be getting some sort of greens.

Look at the nutrition facts! I know this may be time consuming, especially if your stomach feels like it’s eating itself, but if your school has a paper with the dietary facts it’s important to look.  You never know if the meal is prepared on the premises, and in my opinion, this gives you a good idea of how it’s prepared and what goes in it.

Go to a vender that prepares the meal right in front of you! This lets you choose what food items you want in your meal.  For example, we have a station that is dedicated to “healthy” eating and offers numerous vegan and vegetarian options.  This meal allowed me to pick the ingredients and the chef prepped and cooked it while I waited.

Try to avoid the desserts! Having ice cream or cake once or twice a week is okay, but when you end your meal with ice cream, cake, and cookies every night you have an issue.  If dessert is an important part of your meal, try getting fruit and yogurt one night and cake the next.

No matter how good this looks...

...This will taste and look just as good