8 Useful Tips For Healthy Cooking in College

Hey boys and girls. My name is Joe Romeo and I am happy to announce that I will be your Fit NU foodie this semester! In addition to one monthly event where we go out and do something health-food related and a featuring something delicious from my kitchen (or yours!), I will be writing a series of weekly articles. These articles will be covering a wide range of food-related topics and will be posted right here on the Fit University website!

I will cover everything from easy, nutritious recipes, to cooking on a tight budget and schedule, to explaining the confusing health-science jargon (what the hell is a “carotenoid”?), to helping you make the most out of your meal plan—so stay tuned!

This first installment is going to focus on the dieting side of that promise we all made to ourselves on New Year’s Eve.

An article recently published by Sarah Gaines on keeping your new year’s resolutions speaks volumes on the importance of keeping yourself motivated to make small but consistent lifestyle changes that will eventually achieve those big resolutions. This relates to the main bigger question: “How will I alter my behavior to make a change this year?”

Dietary resolutions can vary a lot from person to person. From achieving better stats in the doctor’s office, to complimenting a training regimen, to trying to feel more comfortable in your own skin, everyone has different motivations and goals when it comes to food. The one thing that binds these resolutions together is the need for consistency. One cheeseburger will not give you heart disease, but one can of spinach isn’t going to give you the Popeye forearms either; it’s all about developing a healthy eating lifestyle, and one of the best (an most affordable)ways of doing that is cooking your own meals.

But there are several drawbacks to not taking to the time out to prepare your own meals. Think about it this way: the mission of any restaurant is to make a profit off of great tasting food. While every restaurant is different, and there are plenty of places that do not rely on excess salt, sugar, and fat to make their foods palatable, the bottom line is that you don’t know the nutritional content of your meal unless it is listed. Even if the food is perfectly healthy for you, the restaurant still wants to make a profit, so they will sell you the food at a price higher than the cost of its production. Don’t get me wrong, takeout food is amazing and convenient; but in the long run, there aren’t any economic advantages to eating takeout over a home cooked meal. This holds true even when considering the cheapest available takeout options, as shown in this New York Times comparison between a home-cooked meal and McDonalds takeout for a family of four.

My favorite part of cooking for myself is the control I have over what goes into the food that I’m eating. But there is a lot more to cooking than the combination of different things into a pot at different times and temperatures (or as I refer to it: “edible chemistry”). Cooking nutritious meals that are worth eating on a tight budget and schedule requires planning, creativity, and making good choices at the grocery store.

Here are a couple of guidelines to get you started:

1. Make healthy food interesting

Give yourself an incentive to avoid takeout by cooking healthy food that tastes good. This will come with time, experience, and exposure to different flavors and cooking techniques. As a general rule, minimize the use of salt and processed dressings in flavoring dishes, and go for more natural products such as citrus fruits, hot sauces, fresh or dried herbs, and spices. This is also possible on a meal plan. Use the spices, sauces, and fruits made available to you to jazz up any sad-looking steamed veggie dish or salad.

2. Don’t food shop on an empty stomach

When you are hungry, you will naturally opt to buy processed foods that require little or no preparation to satisfy you, which tend to be more calorie dense and less fulfilling.

3. Plan. Prep. Store.

Segregate what you will want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, as well as snacks. Make a list and stick to it when you shop. Prep the ingredients for a recipe in advance (chopping, measuring, etc.) and store in Tupperware to save time during the busier days of the week.

4. Alternate protein sources

Protein is an essential component of any diet due to its role in maintaining bodily structure and keeping a person more satisfied after meals, but it doesn’t hae to be the same chicken dinner every time. Try other foods, such as other lean meats, eggs, beans/legumes, tofu, and nuts in order to get a more balanced profile of both essential and non-essential amino acids.

5. You are what you drink

The sugars in sweetened beverages, such as soda and fruit juices, are processed more rapidly in the body than sugar from whole fruits, due to the lack of fiber in these products. This leads to increased appetite and unsafe spikes in blood glucose levels, as well as the more rapid production of fat.

6. Snack smart, avoid “low-fat” and “fat-free” processed foods

Processed foods that are marked “fat free” are often loaded with sugar and chemical additives to compensate for the lack of flavor.­ Snack on raw vegetables, fruits, mixed nuts/natural nut butters, and Greek yogurt throughout the day to prevent overeating at mealtimes.

7. Don’t fight your food cravings, adjust to them

Mimic junk food items with healthy alternatives. Swap out a pizza for a caprese salad, a pack of M&Ms for dark chocolate, ice cream for blended frozen bananas, etc.

8. Make it colorful

Try to make meals as colorful as possible. This will encourage you to put different items on the same plate, from dark leafy greens, to a variety of other vegetables like tomatoes, bell pepper, carrots, avocado, etc. There is a laundry list of recommended vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients for us to consume on a daily basis, and diversity during mealtimes helps to meet those goals.

If you’ve read all the way to this point, thank you! I hope you’ve read some helpful tips to get you started on your healthy eating journey this year.

The articles from here on out will be shorter and will focus on more specific topics. There is a lot more food knowledge I have to share, including what tools go into a good kitchen, “featurettes” of certain foods that are particularly nutritious, how to make the most of your dining hall meal plan (so freshmen, don’t feel excluded), and a few recipes that are both simple to make and nutritionally complete.

Speaking of which, if you want an idea of what that might look like, look out tomorrow for a recipe for one of my favorite things to make in bulk this time of year: turkey chili.

Sources:

[1] Bittman, Mark. “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” Http://www.nytimes.com/. The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2011. Web.

[1] Tal A, Wansink B. Fattening Fasting: Hungry Grocery Shoppers Buy More Calories, Not More Food. JAMA Intern Med.2013;173(12):1146-1148. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.650

[1] U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. 7th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 2010.

[1] “Essential and Nonessential Amino Acids for Humans.” Essential and Nonessential Amino Acids for Humans. UIC.edu, n.d. Web.

[1] Grover, Megan. “Does the Body Process Fruit Sugars the Same Way That It Does Refined Sugar?” Healthyeating.sfgate.com. SFgate, n.d. Web.

[1] Fed Up. Dir. Stephanie Soechtig. Perf. Katie Couric. Atlas Films, 2014. Documentary.

[2] Tal A, Wansink B. Fattening Fasting: Hungry Grocery Shoppers Buy More Calories, Not More Food. JAMA Intern Med.2013;173(12):1146-1148. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.650

[3] U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. 7th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 2010.

[4] “Essential and Nonessential Amino Acids for Humans.” Essential and Nonessential Amino Acids for Humans. UIC.edu, n.d. Web.

[5] Grover, Megan. “Does the Body Process Fruit Sugars the Same Way That It Does Refined Sugar?” Healthyeating.sfgate.com. SFgate, n.d. Web.

[6] Fed Up. Dir. Stephanie Soechtig. Perf. Katie Couric. Atlas Films, 2014. Documentary.