From not exercising as regularly as you did in high school to no longer having access to home-cooked meals, it isn’t hard for students to fall into unhealthy eating habits in college—especially in the first few months as freshmen adapting to a new routine. And dining halls at universities nationwide don’t always make maintaining a balanced diet easy.
Overeating is a major concern for many stressed-out college students, with late-night dinners and endless burgers and fries at their fingertips. It can also be hard to find nutrition information for food in the cafeteria, so students aren't always aware of nutrient intake or recommended serving sizes before grabbing their meals.
From experience, I’ve learned that to eat moderate portions in the dining hall, it’s vital to make sure you know what’s in the meal before choosing it. Here are a few other key tips I’ve picked up that can help you be more conscious of what you eat on campus.
1. Read the labels first
When looking at nutrition labels, it’s important to look at all the different sections of the label, such as calories, serving size, ingredients, fats, sugars, and carbohydrate content. According to most nutritionists, an active person should eat no more than 2,000 calories a day, which is the basis for nutrition labels. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion website is a great resource to learn more about food and nutrition.
Nutrition labels are one of the most important things a student should look at before choosing what to eat in the dining hall. One thing to remember is labels always have the ingredients in order of most used to least, so if there’s an unhealthy ingredient (e.g., sugar or high fructose corn syrup) in the top few, you may want to reconsider how much of it you eat.
Nutrition information is often available online for most universities, but students in a rush may not care to spend time looking up this information before heading to the dining hall to eat. I’ve learned to keep the nutrition page open on my phone’s internet tabs for easy access. It’s also great because then I have the cafeteria menu ahead of time so I can save time deciding what to eat.
Related: How to Create Healthy Food Habits as a Busy Student
2. Know your portions
It can be easy to overeat on a college meal plan because of the dining hall portions. And if your school offers buffet dining options, it can be even harder to balance serving size. At my university’s dining hall, students are often served large portions for meals and huge pieces of dessert, which can add up to over 1,000 calories per serving. These serving sizes can be a huge culprit in unhealthy eating, especially if you take more than one plate per visit.
It's common to load up on food at buffet-style dining halls. Because buffets are self-serve, students can easily double or triple their portions of French fries, chicken nuggets, and desserts. Our dining halls have a specific set of rules, so sometimes students eat as much as they can because we’re not allowed to bring food outside of the hall. Just be aware of how much food you’re taking and learn how big one serving size really is to avoid overeating.
3. Be responsible for your eating habits
Every person’s body type, lifestyle, and calorie and nutrition intake needs are different. Some people need more or less than the recommended 2,000 calories a day. The Mayo Clinic offers a useful calorie calculator to determine roughly how many calories you should eat in order to maintain a healthy weight based on your age, height, and sex. Your university health services office is another great resource to help you maintain a healthy diet, as they often have information on staying healthy on campus and potentially access to nutritionists.
While dining halls make it tempting to indulge in large slices of cake and greasy pizza, they also offer a range of nutritious options—it’s simply up to you to make sure you choose the right food and portions for your body. Being responsible in the dining hall means only having one or two plates and making sure you have a balance of fruit and vegetables along with your main entrée.
4. Know your food alternatives
Universities have a lot of information regarding dining halls and their meal schedules on their website and are usually accommodating to every dietary restriction possible, making alternative foods and healthier habits easily accessible to students.
Don’t be afraid to ask for smaller portion sizes if you feel they are too large for you to eat. University workers care for students and are usually happy to accommodate reasonable requests. Oh, and one last tip: Save some food for a later meal! If portions look like a lot, set part of it aside as leftovers to keep in your dorm for later after class or during a grueling study session.
Related: 6 Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle in College
Staying healthy on a student meal plan is a skill many students struggle with when heading off to college. It’s important to recognize what amount of food is appropriate for your lifestyle and to learn how to balance what’s on your plate. Remember to look at nutrition labels and make smart choices about what you eat. Staying healthy in college isn’t difficult if you make yourself aware of what you’re eating and how much.
Find even more advice to help you stay healthy in college under our "student health" tag!
