Eating is not only vital to our health, but also critical for our development. It’s important for college students to know the facts about nutrition because anything not affecting our bodies now will affect them later.
Just watching what we eat isn’t enough for college students, though. As young and upcoming adults, we have to start worrying about financial issues.
It’s not hard to find cheap food. It’s a little challenging, but still possible, to find healthy food. If you want a real challenge, look for food both nutritious and affordable.
The LSU Student Union recognizes the fast-paced lifestyle of college students by providing a plethora of quick lunch options. The problem is quick usually means fast food. With expediency, we almost always sacrifice quality. When quality takes a hit, so too does nutritional value.
To claim fast food isn’t nutritionally sound isn’t to claim it’s cheap, however. If we use the convenience of the Student Union’s fast food options each day, we’d end up spending around $50 on lunch for the week.
For students living off campus, you can look around your residency for options. Unfortunately, you’ll find the same variety of Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell and McDonald’s — not much better than anywhere else.
If this doesn’t strike your fancy, you’d best look elsewhere. So where else is there?
To minimize funds spent on food, we’d do best to bring food from home. After all, most professors allow food in their classes as long as the consumer is clean and doesn’t disturb other students.
Likewise, scenic areas around campus and even the Student Union have no limits on what food you can bring and consume.
Furthermore, it can be immensely relaxing not having to wait in a line for 30 minutes during your precious lunch break and even making some time to take in the sunlight. Your body, both inside and out, is the winner in this situation, and your body will thank you for it.
As dandy as this all is, the food needs to come from somewhere. Whole Foods provides a wide variety of health-conscious food options, but it is notorious for being overpriced and inaccessible to college students on a budget.
If you catch them at the right time, farmers markets are an excellent alternative. Alumni from the University’s Agricultural College have created the Red Stick Farmers Market, a local farmers market hosted on Saturdays not too far from the University itself.
College is a weird time for all of us, and we could do without the extra weight of having to struggle to maintain a proper diet and our personal budgets simultaneously. However, if we find ourselves with some free time, we ought to search out healthy and affordable food selections that work for us.
Kyle Richoux is a 20-year-old sociology junior from LaPlace, Louisiana.