Along with chemistry exams and 10-page essays on topics you don’t understand, following a nutritional diet can be pretty difficult in college. So long home cooked meals and hello to temptations from processed and fatty foods. Now, we love a good slice of pizza just like everyone, but it is important to follow a nutritional diet.
Luckily, when your chapter house has college food catering services from Upper Crust Food Service, you don’t have to worry about it. We provide you and your sorority sisters or fraternity brothers fresh, healthy, and tasty meals every single day, so you know you’ll be eating well. However, there will inevitably be times that you aren’t at the chapter house and your stomach starts to growl. So in this post, we want to provide you with a few nutritional tips that you can follow to stay happy and healthy, not only during your time in college but afterward as well. If you need more information about our college catering services or your house in need of a campus chef, then give us a call today!
Vegetables and Fruits
There’s a reason why every parent in the world has told their children to eat their fruits and vegetables countless times — it’s good for us! These fruits are backed with prebiotic fiber, minerals, vitamins, as well as a ton of antioxidants. All of these are incredibly beneficial to your health. It’s been shown that those who eat the most fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of an assortment of diseases including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and more and they’re also known to live a better life.
Protein Is Good for You
It’s pretty common knowledge that your body needs protein, for a variety of reasons. Protein helps your body to create enzymes, hormones, and other beneficial chemicals. It helps you to build muscles, strengthen your bones, also boost your metabolism, and even lowers your blood pressure and blood sugar levels. That all sounds pretty good to us! Many experts are also claiming that the recommended daily amount of protein that we should eat is lower than it should be!
Drink Lots of Water
There are more benefits to drinking water than simply preventing yourself from becoming dehydrated. Drinking water can actually help you lose weight! Studies have shown that drinking 17 ounces of water can help increase your metabolism by 24-30% for up to an hour and a half! Water is also necessary for your kidneys to function properly and helps to remove waste products. While there is no set recommendation for the amount of water you should drink in a day, and it depends on your size, but a good suggestion is to drink eight eight-ounce glasses, which comes to about two liters.
Avoid Alcohol
We know that drinking alcohol is incredibly tempting in college. It seems to be everywhere on campus, but the fact of the matter is that you don’t need to drink to have a good time! Not only that but resisting alcohol does wonders for your health, mentally and physically. For one, alcohol contains nearly double the caloric content than the majority of proteins and carbs. Drinking is also incredibly bad for your heart. Not drinking will go a long way in preventing heart disease. Alcohol increases the amount of fat in your bloodstream and results in higher cholesterol levels.
Your liver is also not a fan of alcohol. At all. When you drink, your liver has to work extra hard to process it, and it gets tired. If you continue drinking, your liver can’t hold up and you’re likely to develop liver diseases.
With your brain being so important during your college years, why would you want to damage it at all? While it’s untrue that alcohol kills brain cells, it does damage dendrites which makes it tough for neurons to send messages to one another. You can rest assured that this will make studying and your exams that much more difficult.
Eat Fresh, Not Processed
In this day and age, processed foods are everywhere you look. We’ve become very accustomed to convenience and munching on some junk foods or grabbing a fast food burger when hungry has become the norm, but it’s so bad for your body! Processed foods are full of unhealthy ingredients including refined grains and sugar, and hardly have any nutrients that your body wants or needs. Your body is begging for the proper nutrients only found in fresh food. At Upper Crust Food Service, our sorority and fraternity chefs use only fresh and responsible ingredients so you can rest assured that you’ll be eating healthy!
Eat Nuts
Nuts are a simple snack that are also really good for you! Although they may be a little high in fat, they make up for it with vitamin E, fiber, magnesium, and more! They’ve also been shown to help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease and some believe that they help boost your metabolism and can help you lose weight.
Eat More Fish
If you’re not a fan of eating fish, you’re missing out on a ton of benefits. Fatty fish like salmon is chock full of a variety of nutrients and omega-3 fatty acids. Experts have found that people who eat more fish are less likely to develop dementia, heart disease, and many more diseases.
Cut Added Sugar
We all have a sweet tooth, there’s no denying that, but we all have to make sure that we don’t take our sugar addiction too far. Added sugar is one of the worst ingredients for the body and can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. Also, try and avoid sugary drinks as much as you can. Our brains don’t register liquid sugar calories as solid foods so you will actually end up with more total calories. This doesn’t just mean sodas. Although it has “fruit” in its name, fruit juice has the same amount of sugar as soda, if not more. We know it’s tasty, just don’t get the impression that you’re receiving your daily fruit through juice, you’re actually paying a price.
While all of these nutrition tips are pretty simple and commonly known, if you keep all of this information in the back of your mind during your day, it’s likely that you’ll be able to have a more nutritional diet, and in turn, a healthier body. The daily meal plans we provide through our college food catering services will provide you and your fellow fraternity or sorority members get the nutrients that your body is asking for.
In need of Greek house kitchen solutions? If we’re not on your campus already, let’s change that! Contact Upper Crust Food Service today.