College: Good for the Mind, Bad for the Body (BP4)
Imagine This:
It is finals week. You have 2 papers and an Algebra II final to study for. Luckily for you the library is open 24 hours. you are about to spend all night there so you head to the stripes off campus. what do you pick up? definitely not an organic kale smoothie...
Students all around America are falling victim to the unhealthy food environment which is being pushed in campuses all around the United States.
According to NYU's "Live Well" Campaign, which is quickly becoming my favorite source, the people who are most likely to pick up a soda or energy drink are between the ages of 19 and 39. The exact demographic of college students and young professionals. They don't exactly make it easy on us either. Have any of you seen one of these on your campus?
I know I definitely have.
Story Time
my freshman year I arrived to college weighing 175-180 lbs from working out and just generally eating a lot. not the healthiest guy around but I definitely never struggled with anorexia. As soon as I got to college I realized that my family wasn't there to cook for me every day which was quite a shock. The dining hall on campus was there of course but the food wasn't always up to par, and I found myself prioritizing other things over food, chiefly among them was: Time. I found that every time I had a deadline or a rehearsal that i was stressing about, I would skip multiple meals at a time and substitute caffeine or fast food (or both) instead. At first this really took a toll on me but after a few weeks my body acclimated and the results were kinda terrifying. The reason they were so scary was that I really didn't notice anything was wrong. The only reason I realized was because the second I got home for Christmas break my family looked at my like I had lost a leg, they were terrified that I was so skinny.
I was sure that they were wrong but after not being able to finish dinners or not being hungry around lunch time I started to understand why they were so scared. I eventually started going back to the Gym where I realized the extent of the damage: I couldn't lift weights that were previously easy, I had less stamina, my bowel movements were almost non-existent and I really had no drive to eat vegetables. It has been a painstaking process but I am slowly building my body back up to something healthy, hopefully I can help all of you realize the extent of the terrible food environment promoted by Universities.
Next time youre strolling around your campus, go ahead and count how many fast food restaurants you see. youll be suprised to see just how many they have, and as far as I am concerned, Campus Dining counts as fast food. All of the campus owned resaurants (including the dining hall) are all owned by a huge conglomerate called Chartwells, and Chartwells is owned by a larger, mass food producing, conglomerate called Compass who is notorious for providing unhealthy, buffet style, campus dining options. My University currently has 10 different locations where students can eat food and they are all owned under Compass.
Solution: Cook for yourself
The man In the video above is Michael Pollan, and if you are interested in food health at all then you need to read up on him. He has written a few incredible books on the food environment in America and in this video particularly he lauds cooking in any form. The video is definitely pretty long but he is a genius and if you really don't have the time then the gist is this: Conglomerate companies (such as Compass) cook food by machine with a TON of sodium, sugar and fat. so my dude Mike suggests an incredibly easy fix to this. Cook it yourself. Even if its junk food like french fries, if you cook it yourself its a million times healthier than store bought. And that is a Michael Pollan guarantee.
-B
www.nyu.edu/life/safety-health-wellness/live-well-nyu/priority-areas/nutrition.html.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7kwfE3cJQ