Food is an important part of a balanced diet

by

Over the summer I’ve seen a lot of students who aren’t feeling well, not a surprise since my job is seeing students who don’t feel well. As I’ve tried to get to the bottom of what’s what, I’ve been surprised and somewhat taken aback by how many of you survive on $2 Happy Meals and $0.99 extra value menu items. While I am loathe to denigrate (or pass up) a $2 meal that comes with a free toy, fast food does not form the basis of a healthy diet.

I concede that the food service isn’t always on the same schedule as hunger. After a long, stressful day in the lab or library, throwing together a soufflé might not be super relaxing. McDonalds, on the other hand is open late and doesn’t require any advance planning.

But it’s not that hard to throw together a healthy meal. Here’s a brief guide to feeding yourself well without spending a lot of money or all afternoon prepping mise en place with an expensive German knife.

First, you have to find the food. Your mom, roommate, friend, or even good old COTA (the local city bus for you out of town newbies) can help get you to fresh suppliers. Along with local groceries, don’t forget the affordable bounty at our local ethnic markets. Three or four are a stone’s throw north on High Street. The North Market and its fabulous Saturday farmer’s market is a brisk 2 mile walk south on High Street. For a comprehensive list of fresh food, check out:

Hungry Wolf’s Guide to Local Food Procurement

Once you get provisions, what do you do? How about salads? Hard-boiled eggs, precut salad bar vegetables, and pre-cleaned greens in bags make a decent salad a breeze. Bulk nuts and dried fruits are great ways to add protein and fiber. Add a side of bread, and you’re running your own Panera. Check out the link below to stretch your salad wings:

Minimalist’s 100 simple salads for the season

Real, live college students commented on their food survival techniques @ 101-Cookbooks:

Dorm Food Ideas

If you have access to a microwave and fridge there’s almost nothing you can’t do. Look for one of the many well-reviewed products on the market that make cooking rice or pasta in a microwave a breeze, and check out these sites:

Eating on $25 a week

Cooking ramen in the microwave

Cooking rice in the microwave

Once you’re an accomplished chef, what are you to do with all those odds and ends you have left? Try the Restaurant Puppy. You enter what you have and the puppy spits out recipes for you to try:

An Ingredient based Recipe Search Engine – Recipe Puppy

So, veteran Buckeye eaters, what do you do? Please post a comment and share your epicurean expertise with the rest of us.

Post voraciously written by Victoria Rentel, MD (Ohio State Student Health Services) with a title shamelessly stolen from Fran Lebowitz

178 thoughts on “Food is an important part of a balanced diet”

  1. wonderful….
    Too much quality information…
    Apart from food we human need much more to be healthy- at least mental food, it could be hobby ,pets.
    I like dogs…
    As per Harvard Research ”
    Dogs have been shown to lower blood pressure, improve recovery from heart disease, and even reduce rates of asthma and allergy in children who grow up with a Fido or a Frisky in the house. Dogs also improve people’s psychological well-being and self-esteem.” cool isn’t ?
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  2. As much as I understand the need for cheap food, there are a lot healthier options than Ramen noodles. One of my favorite easy, and cheap meals are wraps. In some cases you don’t even have to cook anything, just buy some sliced deli meats and cheeses, add some fresh greens, tomatoes, and maybe even some cucumbers. Here is great easy recipe, one thing you can do is use already cooked chicken. If you are a student, ask your mom to cook you some extra chicken and cut it up, or just use sliced chicken from the store.
    http://cookit.recipes/recipe/chicken-club-wrap

  3. Learn how to cook! This is how I got through the difficult time in college – I simply had enough money to do it and, in order to save time, I found myself healthy quick recipes to keep up with the tempo. The healthiest recipes are actually the cheapest and fastest – I can make chicken with white rice for less than one hour now, depending on the oven’s specifications. After all, it’s all a matter of choice how you will spend those years – living on the edge and partying every night, or have a well-working regime.
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  9. Food is like 70% of a diet don’t forget it! It is the most important part (well, okay maybe next to sleep!)

  17. it’s important to eat a healthy diet throughout your life, no matter what age you are.Proper diet plays an important role in day to day life its good to have a balanced/diet chart to be fit and active
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  22. This article resonates deeply with me. I know so many students who eat junk food not because its cheap, but because its easy to buy. Healthy food can be prepared for the same or even less than the cost of junk food, but it takes way more time than to buy a dollar burger! Its expensive to buy a healthy salad outside, and so students just buy junk food.
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  31. Great article, I can relate a lot to this, I don’t like cooking so microwaved foods can be very healthy and less time consuming to cook.

  32. Great article, I can relate a lot to this, For example oatmeal and scrambled eggs cook well in microwave when you don’t have much time in your hands.

  38. Totally agreed, food is an important of a balanced diet especially healthy food and one should be careful while choosing the recipe at home…Thanks for sharing the useful information.

  43. I agree with a balance diet for a healthy lifestyle but it can be hard on a college budget. I think stir frying up some cut up chicken breast with some frozen stir fry vegetables using olive oil would be a fairly healthy meal. Maybe some brown rice instead of white rice. I also think a meal plan could help out on the budget check out these posts for a good meal planner template. http://weeklymealplannertemplate.com

  47. wonderful information, I had come to know about your blog from my friend nandu , hyderabad,i have read atleast 7 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your website gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i’m already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanks a ton once again,

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