Leaving home for college presents challenges as well as opportunities. If you’re someone whose kitchen know-how doesn’t extend beyond the reheat setting on the microwave, the idea of having to learn basic cooking skills along with calculus can seem overwhelming. It’s all too convenient to give in to the lure of the dining hall or food court. However, the basic tips in this chapter will help transform cooking from a chore into a creative, stress-free break from studying.
Statistics show that approximately half of all students put on between ten and fifteen pounds during their first year of college. Yikes, right? It’s easy to fall victim to the freshman fifteen when you’re trying to adjust to a busy schedule and there’s fast food at your fingertips everywhere you look. However, putting on weight will just increase the stress that you’re already feeling from academic pressures, and it can be hard to take off later. Luckily, there are ways to keep the pounds away, and they don’t include limiting yourself to a bowl of plain oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
First and foremost, stick to a regular meal schedule. If you are planning a lengthy study session away from the dorm, prepare healthy snacks to take with you. Simple snacks such as Peanutty Bananas (page 182) and Trail Mix (page 183) provide energy without the fat and calories in potato chips and chocolate. Also, try to plan your meals about a week in advance. One option is to cook ahead, making all your weekly meals over the weekend. It’s much easier to stick to a healthy meal plan on a busy weeknight when all you need to do is heat up dinner instead of preparing it from scratch. Finally, take time to exercise. Many colleges have excellent exercise facilities right on campus that are free for students. With a little planning, you can fit an exercise session into your daily schedule. A daily swim or aerobic workout makes it easier to control your weight, and it also lifts your spirits by releasing endorphins, giving you a much-needed boost of energy.
Obviously, avoiding the freshman fifteen is a good reason to eat well and take care of your body while you’re in college, but it’s not the only reason. Food isn’t just about how your body looks on the outside; in fact, it’s how your body looks on the inside that’s most important. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with the basics of nutrition in order to understand the fuel aspect of the food you eat. In other words, things like vitamins, minerals, protein, calcium, and all that jazz.
First of all, it’s very important to try to avoid eating processed foods whenever you can. College is perhaps the most difficult environment in which to do this, but it is possible—and the benefits are many. Try to always choose the whole foods that are complete as nature intended them. Processed foods such as grains, sugars, and flours are often stripped of their natural nutrients. Even when vitamins and minerals are added back in later—a process called “enriching,” which means that the nutrients lost during refining are added back in to enrich the product—the total effect is never the same.
FOOD LANGUAGE 101
Another confusing term for consumers is fortifying, and many of today’s foods are fortified with added vitamins and minerals. Fortifying milk with vitamin D is one example; adding folic acid to specific foods is another. Enriching, then, means putting back into a refined food nutrients lost during processing; fortifying not only means adding back lost nutrients, but also adding in others that may not occur naturally in a particular food.
Take the example of rice: White rice may cook faster and have a more adaptable taste, but when the outer bran layer is stripped away, the rice grains lose much of their beneficial fiber and minerals. As proof, 1 cup of brown rice contains 3.5 grams of fiber. One cup of white rice contains less than 1 gram. Even enriching white rice doesn’t make up the difference in the loss of fiber and minerals.
Now that you know to avoid processed foods that have all the good stuff stripped out of them, it’s time to cover what you do want in your food. Key nutrients that your body needs include protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamins A, D, and B12. You will also need a source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for preventing heart disease.
Your body’s nerves, tissues, and bones are all made up of proteins, so proteins are necessary for growth and repair. Protein is found plentifully in meats and other animal-based foods, but that doesn’t mean you should eat a cheeseburger every day to get your protein. Meats and other animal-based foods contain a lot of fat and cholesterol, so you’ll want to find other sources of protein as well. Dairy foods such as milk, cheese, and yogurt are excellent protein sources. Such nondairy sources as eggs, beans, and soy products contain enough protein to round out even a vegetarian diet.
Your body needs iron for the red blood cells carrying oxygen throughout the body. While iron is found plentifully in red meats, eggs, and seafood, and in lesser quantities in white meats, you can also get your daily allowance of iron from foods like spinach, kidney beans, lentils, and whole-wheat baked goods.
Calcium is the key mineral needed for forming and maintaining strong bones and teeth, but it also helps with other body functions. To get enough calcium, make sure to eat plenty of dairy products as well as calcium-rich vegetables like leafy greens.
You’ve heard about taking a zinc supplement if you begin to feel sick? That’s because the mineral zinc helps bolster the immune system, assists in healing wounds, and helps sustain the senses of smell and taste. Zinc occurs naturally in red meat and poultry, in some seafood, and in beans, nuts, whole grains, and dairy products.
Vitamin A prevents eye problems, promotes a healthy immune system, is essential for the growth and development of cells, and keeps skin healthy. Good sources of vitamin A are milk, eggs, darkly colored orange or green vegetables (such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and kale), and orange fruits (such as cantaloupe, apricots, peaches, papayas, and mangos).
FOOD LANGUAGE 101
In the 1930s, a vitamin-D deficiency disease called rickets was a major public health concern in the United States. However, a national milk fortification program has nearly eliminated this disorder. Currently, about 98 percent of the milk supply in the United States is fortified with 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per quart. Although milk is fortified with vitamin D, dairy products such as cheese and ice cream are generally not.
Your body may need only small amounts of vitamin B12, but it is essential for the proper growth of red blood cells and for the health of some nerve tissues. Signs of a B12 deficiency include numbness and tingling in hands and legs, weakness, disorientation, and depression, among others. Vitamin B12 occurs in animal proteins, but you can also get plenty in your daily diet by eating eggs and dairy products.
The most abundant natural sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which help prevent heart disease, are fish and fish oils. Other good sources include flaxseed oil and such vegetable oils as olive oil and canola.
By this point, you’ve read about the evils of processed foods and what nutrients your body needs, but there’s another very big piece to the college health puzzle: exercise. Having read a little about the freshman fifteen, you already know that the idea of weight gain in college is a scary thing—and totally avoidable. You’re in your late teens or early twenties; this is your prime! You’ll need all your brain cells to do well in your classes, so don’t spare any worrying about your weight. What’s the secret? It’s simple: Get moving.
In addition to eating well and on a regular schedule while you’re in school, you also need to make sure you get regular exercise. Most colleges have fitness centers right on campus that are free or inexpensive for enrolled students. Go join! Depending on what your school’s fitness center offers, you can stick to machines like treadmills, ellipticals, and weight machines, or you can get in on classes, such as yoga, kickboxing, and step aerobics. Get yourself a cute new fitness outfit, drag your friends along with you to make it more fun, and generally do whatever it takes to ensure that you make time to work out.
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
Trapped inside on a rainy or cold day? Whether you want to admit it or not, you can still get a workout in. Buy yourself a yoga mat (they generally sell for around $15) and hit the floor for some stretches, yoga poses, sit-ups, and push-ups. You can also invest in some small hand weights and do a series of exercises such as bicep curls and tricep extensions. As long as you get your body moving in some way, it’s always better than no exercise at all.
But don’t tell yourself that indoor options are the only ways to stay in shape. In nice weather, hit the pavement and go out for a brisk walk or a jog. This is something else you can do with a friend, and it’s a great way to get out in the sunshine and breathe the fresh air. You may even pass by that cute guy from Spanish I, who will be very impressed by your athletic abilities. Another option is to arrange a casual soccer or basketball game with friends. Grab a ball and hit the field or the court on a nice day. As long as you get your heart rate up and your blood pumping, you’re getting much-needed exercise.
Let’s get serious. You’re a young adult, you’re living away from your parents for the first time, and your life is yours for the making. Are nutrition and exercise really the biggest things on your mind? Probably not, and that’s okay. College is about a lot of things, including getting an education, meeting new people, trying new activities, and learning who you are as a person. But here’s the thing about good health: It comes into play in every area of your life, and it always will.
FOOD LANGUAGE 101
You’ve heard the phrase “brain food"? Well, that’s because foods that are good for you actually do help your brain and the rest of your body function at maximum capacity. That means having more energy to go out for an intramural field hockey league, having more stamina to get through late-night study sessions, and generally looking and feeling your best. Remember, getting an A in life is just as important as getting an A in class.
When you look and feel good, other people will be attracted to you, and not just in a romantic way. Your professors will show more interest in your work, your classmates will want to team up with you for projects, and the people you live with will be more likely to become new friends. And of course, health and confidence are great turn-ons to those you may be interested in dating. A healthy lifestyle may also help you find someone who has similar interests, such as cooking or running. You might even start a weekly potluck dinner party or a weekend running club. See? A healthy college life can also be fun! In short, there’s no limit to the benefits of good health in college, so why not get started and discover them for yourself?
You can’t cook so much as a can of soup without the right equipment, so the first step in your quest to become a great college cook is to take inventory of what you have already and make a list of what you need. Of course, what you ultimately decide to bring with you to college will vary according to your own personal circumstances. For example, residences with communal kitchens often provide pots, pans, and other cooking essentials for residents. Some college kitchens, on the other hand, are only equipped with the more basic appliances, such as a toaster oven, in which case there would be no point in spending money on a heavy-duty frying pan. So, taking into account your own kitchen situation, review the following lists of basic items and mix and match according to your needs:
BOWLS, POTS, AND PANS
UTENSILS AND TOOLS
Some college residences allow students to keep small electrical appliances in the dorm or the residence kitchen. A coffeemaker allows you to have a cup of java ready as soon as you wake up in the morning. Tea drinkers will want a kettle for boiling water. Along with a toaster or toaster oven, these items will help make your living quarters seem more like home. When it comes to larger appliances, definitely consider a microwave if your budget and college regulations permit it. Although it can’t completely replace a standard electric oven, a microwave can be used for everything from making popcorn to preparing an entire meal. Compact microwave and refrigerator combinations, designed specifically for dormitories, are also available. Some even come with a small freezer attached.
BARGAINS FOR YOUR BUDGET
If you’re like many college students, you probably don’t have all kinds of extra cash to spend on kitchen gadgets. No problem! Before you go away to school, ask friends and family members if they have any older mixing bowls, utensils, or other kitchen items that they don’t use anymore. Hand-me-downs may not be as pretty to look at, but they’ll work just as well as expensive new ones. Also, hit up discount home goods stores and even garage sales before you head back to school. Someone’s old but perfectly good $5 blender could be your gain!
Many recipes call for food to be beaten, blended, whipped, processed, or crushed. If your budget is limited, hand tools can perform many of these functions; for example, a manual hand mixer is fine for beating eggs. And nothing beats a mortar and pestle for grinding and crushing nuts, herbs, spices, crackers, soft fruit, and almost any food that will fit into the mortar (that’s the bowl-shaped part). However, if your budget permits, you may want to explore some higher-tech options. For example, a blender is perfect for harried but health-conscious students. Compact, inexpensive, and easy
to clean, a blender will do everything from liquefy smoothie ingredients to purée vegetables.
All this talk of blenders and other electrical kitchen gadgets leads us to the most quintessential college appliance of all: the hot pot. Let’s say you don’t have access to a kitchen of any kind while you’re in college. Worry not—that’s what your hot pot is for! A hot pot is just what it sounds like: a small plastic pot with a heating element in the bottom and an attached lid on top that plugs into the wall and acts as a stovetop and a pot all in one. All you have to do is plug it in, turn it on, and fill it with anything that needs to be heated up. You can boil water to make coffee or tea, or to cook pasta or steam vegetables. Alternatively, you can use it to heat up leftovers or prepared foods, such as soup and chili.
The beloved cousin to the hot pot is the hot plate. Basically, a hot plate performs all the functions of a burner on a stovetop, while taking up considerably less space than a conventional stove. A hot plate can be used for everything from making pancakes to frying pork chops.
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
Another handy device for dorm cooking is a rice cooker/steamer combination. Compact and inexpensive, this appliance steams meat, seafood, and vegetables, and it cooks rice and beans more quickly than the standard stovetop heating element. As an added bonus, it has a plastic surface that makes cleaning easy. For students who have a microwave, the addition of a rice cooker/steamer can provide some of the advantages of stovetop cooking, making it unnecessary to purchase a hot plate.
Now before you get all excited about how easy it will be to cook cans of soup and heat up frozen chicken nuggets with your new hot pot and hot plate, take note that quick cooking is not always healthy cooking. While your hectic schedule will have you tempted to heat up ramen noodles for dinner every night, remember that there’s a whole lot more you can do with your college kitchen appliances than make soup from a package. Fresh, natural ingredients such as vegetables and whole-grain pastas will always make more nutritious (and believe it or not, more delicious) meals than you can buy wrapped in plastic at the local 7-Eleven. Let’s get started!