It’s the back to college time of year! As parents everywhere are returning their children to college or sending them off for the very first time, I want to talk to you about something simple….food. Or more specifically, some options that you can feel good about leaving with your kids.
Next year marks the 10 year anniversary of when I graduated undergrad at Longwood University and while many things have changed about campus life in 10 years, the nutritional value of “dorm food” has not. For decades now, students go to college equipped with a mini-fridge and microwave ready to whip up a cuisine of Spaghetti-O’s, Easy Mac, and Ramen Noodles (all of which are empty calories packed with sugar and sodium that will leave you hungry again in about 15 minutes). Sure, these convenience foods have a shelf-life of forever and are hard to mess up, even for those unexperienced at cooking. However, are their better choices that can be made just as easily?
Now admittedly, it has been awhile since I thought about dorm food. However, two things happened recently that sparked this article. The first is that my very first class of students (all 150 of them) graduated high school this past June. As with most high school teachers in an age of social media, our “policy” about students and social media is that you can “friend” us when you graduate. Something that until my first class graduated I forgot about……. until their friend requests to me and their other teachers start flooding in (something I’m still making up my mind about, social media is such a slippery slope). Anyway, as my former students are heading off to college and I am scouring the “back to school” flyers for back to teaching supplies, the amount of advertisements for “dorm food” has me reflecting on all the things that I know now that I wish I knew then.
I am going to break this article down into several parts as follows.
- Nutritional background on college students’ diets
- Useful cooking equipment that are dorm safe
- Meal Delivery Programs
- Specific food recommendations for nutritionally sound dorm food
Nutritional background on college students’ diets
Students have access to more food choices than ever before. While in some ways this is a positive thing, it also has allowed for Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles to take a prominent place in the collegiate diet.
Now I will not sit here and say that I always ate amazing nutritional food choices in my college career. As a college student in the early 2000’s, I had the privilege of living on a campus that had redesigned the dining experience. My mother and I attended the same college 30 years apart. My mother would reminisce about the family style dining experience, where students would sit at a table and pass around side dishes family style and whatever was on the menu for lunch and dinner was what they ate. By the time I went to college, the dining hall, lovingly dubbed D-Hall was a station based dining experience in which you could visit any one of several ethnic food stations, a fully stocked salad and potato bar and the ever present wall of cereal choices. A take-out section for students grabbing food on the go was available with sandwich choices in the rear of the D-Hall building. The Student Union building offered Chick-fil-a, pizza, tacos, or Java City coffee. Even the Library had a Java City kiosk for your late night coffee fix. Not to mention the McDonalds across the street from the high-rise dorms and any one of several pizza delivery services, no one would ever go hungry.
So by now, you are probably wondering why any of us would ever eat food in our dorms. It’s simple, college kids are busy, usually procrastinate, and sometimes lazy….dining halls have set hours of operation. In the winter especially, a lot of us would rather stay in our cozy, warm dorms than venture out in cold rain, wind, or snow. Sometimes you sleep in on the weekend and miss brunch or have club meetings right after class and miss dinner. Think of a thousand scenarios and it has happened and whatever is available in a dorm room is what’s for dinner.
I remember when I was in high school, my Latin teacher told us a story of his roommate or friend or some guy he knew….anyway, the story went like this. His friend ate nothing but Ramen Noodles and drank nothing but vodka or water for a year. Apparently, the ramifications of this diet was that he got sick and was diagnosed with scurvy. Yes, SCURVY…like pirates used to get. Scurvy is basically a lack of nutrients over a prolonged period of time that can lead to all kinds of awful things including having all your teeth fall out. Now I’m sure that college kids don’t get diagnosed with scurvy in hoards, but the moral of the story is still there. College kids love their new found freedom and often exercise it with some questionable decisions. So, the least you can do is help them with sound nutritional choices.
Here’s some facts…and resources!
According to NYC’s website, “despite the significant implications of healthy eating on overall long-term health, many college students engage in poor dietary habits, such as high intake of fast foods and other foods high in fat, low intake of fruits, vegetables, and dairy, and erratic eating behaviors such as meal skipping.”
-The United States Department of Agriculture has realized the collegiate nutrition is so important that they have devoted time is developing several web sources to help guide students on nutritional benefits including:
Top 10 Consumables to keep on your mini-fridge
-Medical Daily published a study citing that as many as 59% of today’s college students suffer from malnutrition
Useful cooking equipment that is dorm safe:
**Below are my suggestions for dorm safe cooking equipment. Please read the rules and regulations for your specific college to make sure that the following are allowed**
OK…so here we are….I have shared my story and some reasons why college kids should focus on some quick nutritionally sound food choices. Now I am going to give you some tools for how to cook more than just noodles in your microwave. For more information including price on these options, click the pictures or product links below.
1) Microwave-this suggestion is a no brainer, but what type of microwave you get should be a consideration. You will want a microwave that is large enough and has a high enough wattage to be able to use microwave cooking products. This may mean that you will not want to stop and purchase the first $25 microwave you see stacked in Walmart’s or Target’s back to school aisle. I suggest Farberware Classic FMO11AHTBKB 1.1 Cubic Foot 1000-Watt Microwave Oven, Stainless Steel
2) Mini-Fridge-also a no brainer, but I suggest investing in a mini-fridge that has a dedicated freezer compartment and not just the little inset freezer that will barely hold a frozen dinner. You will want a freezer that can hold some frozen vegetables and frozen already cooked chicken breasts next to your ice cream. I suggest Midea WHD-113FSS1 Double Reversible Door Refrigerator and Freezer, 3.1 Cubic Feet, Stainless Steel
3) One Pot-These guys are the newest line of kitchen equipment that will not take up to much space. It is a next generation crock-pot that is a lot more safe to operate and cooks in a fraction of the time. I suggest Instant Pot DUO Plus 6 Qt 9-in-1 Multi- Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Yogurt Maker, Egg Cooker, Sauté, Steamer, Warmer, and Sterilizer
4) Microwave vegetable steamer. This plastic little gadget allows you to put water in the bottom tray and your vegetables in the top portion. A few minutes in the microwave will have your vegetables steamed to perfection. Spicy green beans were always a hit in the microwave vegetable steamer (green beans, Worcester sauce, and Montreal steak seasoning). I suggest Sistema Medium Microwave Steamer – Random Colors 10.4 Cup capacity 83.5oz
5) Bullet Style Blender-again, a space saving option from a traditional blender, these blenders will allow anyone to blend up a delicious smoothie or protein shake for a breakfast on the run. I suggest NutriBullet 12-Piece High-Speed Blender/Mixer System, Gray
***Another reason that all of these products are chosen with space saving qualities is that in a traditional dorm, the bathroom sink may be the only sink option to wash dishes***
Meal Delivery Programs
Back in my day, students often waited patiently for those important care packages to arrive in the mail. Care packages could include anything from nonperishable food to cute socks or accessories, gift cards, etc. These packages would be assembled and mailed by a friend or relative, but now there are so many more services that can save parents time and money by having packages sent directly to the student.
Many dorms are now becoming equipped with a shared kitchen and that changes the “dorm food” possibilities. Many companies are popping up that offer fresh ingredients, packaged with dry ice and shipped directly to your home or dorm complete with recipe/instructions. I love these types of meals because they can be tailored online to the dietary preference of the subscriber. How fun it would have been to jump in the kitchen with my friends to try our hand at cooking something different. It’s like training wheels for adult cooked meals.
Out of all of the competitors out there, I recommend Sun Basket. I did considerable research into various fresh ingredient meal delivery programs and Sun Basket won hands down, here’s why. Sun Basket was the only meal delivery program that I could specify as clean eating, paleo, vegan, dairy free, gluten free etc. I found that some of their competitors offered some of those categories but not all. Lastly, Sun Basket is almost always offering discounts and coupons to help you eat healthy at an affordable price. Send a gift from the best West Coast farms and easy, healthy recipes delivered weekly. You can specify how often you would like meals delivered and set your preferences from there. You get to browse a menu and choose your meals so you will never get stuck with a meal that includes ingredients that you won’t eat.
Dorm Food Recommendations with links
One thing that has expanded since I went to college is Amazon. Now offering Prime memberships with free 2 day shipping on most items. If you are in college in a major city, in some cases Amazon can offer 2 hour delivery. A bonus is that a Prime membership offers video and music services as part of the package. My husband and I use Prime often for both at home and business needs. I imagine that if I had access to a Prime account or my parents did, my college life could have been much improved. Amazon is running a special on Prime for college students that I am including below.
Listed below are healthy food recommendations that do not need refrigeration that can all be found on Amazon and can be delivered right to your dorm door.
1) Tuna fish
I personally enjoy the StarKist Tuna Creations, Variety Pack, 2.6 Ounce (Pack of 4)
2) Protein powder (more about that in my 3 basic needs for a beginners workout article)
A good basic protein powder that is an Amazon option is Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein Powder, Double Rich Chocolate, 5 Pound
If you are looking for quality ingredients and don’t mind a slightly higher price tag, I have personally found Shakeology to be the best bang for your buck. My personal favorite is the chocolate, but vanilla is more versatile. Shakeology is a Beach Body product and you can check out their options by clicking the banner below.
3) Peanut butter, almond butter, peanut butter substitute
4) Nuts
5) Jerky
When it comes to jerky, beef jerky that you typically think of is not what you want. The leaner, healthier option would be to opt for buffalo, venison, elk, or turkey jerky.
6) Kind Bars
A lot of granola bars are not as healthy for you as you would think. Packed with sugar and empty carbs, they will often leave you reaching for another before to long. However, Kind makes a bar that is gluten free, high in protein and primarily nut based. My personal favorite is KIND Nuts and Spices Bar, Dark Chocolate/Nuts/Sea Salt 12ct
7) Gluten Free-High Protein Pasta
Pow makes a great gluten free pasta, offered both as plain pasta and complete pasta meal. No gluten and high protein means its a HUGE upgrade from Easy Mac.
I hope that I have given you some reasonable options for eating healthy in college. Feel free to drop us a comment or email if you have any other questions or suggestions.