I've been on and off on this board, but I'm finding this semester extremely difficult to remain healthy..

First off, I'm BROKE.
Tuition is very expensive...sigh...

second, all they serve here are either fried foods, pasta or wraps and pan-inis....I cannot eat WRAPS all day everyday...

I'm thinking of getting a fridge and stocking up on some fruit, but can anyone recommend any good nutrition books? I'm really trying to get on track here...


btw, I have acid reflux too

Getting a mini fridge sounds like a great idea. You should be able to find a deal on them this time of year. Also, check to see if your school has surplus sales. Not all colleges do this, but if they do you can find lots of deals and sometimes they'll have mini fridges. Ask around, your professors should know if your schools surplus dept. sells to the public.

You can stock a fridge with fruit, peanut butter, already prepped veggies (like baby carrots), hummus, etc.

I get a lot of my nutrition information online or from library books. One I really liked was "What to Eat" by Marion Nestle. See if your library has it, that way you don't need to buy it. Also, the first "Superfoods RX" book by Steven Pratt is good.

Good luck! It can be tough eating healthy when you are broke and you have to eat at the cafeteria, but it can be done!

There is a book I am currently lusting after called "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth," by Johnny Bowden. I needed a book on marathon training badly, and so I am going to get this one next time. I could read myself to sleep with that one; lots of interesting facts about foods we should be eating. I also just heard a book review for a cookbook for dorm cooking that I listened to on NPR. I also saw a book that I think might have been it at Barnes and Noble. I remember going to school and just eating crap. It is hard, especially when you are cooking and shopping for one. I recommend just getting used to shopping at the market every day or every other day. That way you are eating fresher foods and don't have to worry too much about storage.

Nutrition for Dummies looks like a pretty good one. I've been meaning to read it myself, but from what I've seen & of course the type of book it is - it looks quite easy to navigate, full of info, and simple/practical.

I also really like the Cooking Light series. It's a cook book/magazine series (which will prob be easy to find at the library & there's a huge selection on amazon) but the magazine provides a lot of information on nutrition along with recipes designed to meet those needs.

I think there are at least a couple of "how to prevent the freshman 15!" books out there, which might be good resources for healthy/low-cal college/dorm eating.

& I like the minifridge idea, too. Keep some veggies/fruit (& tofu if you like) & stir fry sauces in there, cook & serve over plain ramen noodles, & you've got relatively healthy broke college student food : ) Making your own soups can be a great way to cut down on costs & calories, too (assuming you have access to a (dorm?) kitchen). & this might just be me, but I think tuna & pickle sandwiches (or on toast) are awesome healthy/relatively cheap alternatives - you'd just need room for the pickles & some low cal mayo, & nutrition wise you'd prob want whole wheat toast. you could also try tuna salad.

I could not have lived without a mini fridge in college. Even though I gained weight, it was because of the amount of food I was eating, but it kept me away from all the frozen, battered, fried, and otherwise high in sodium and fat foods on campus.

It was tough at my campus, too, because we had a huge meal allowance for campus diners. But I reigned in, and chose to buy groceries at a "Sav A Lot" near me.

I called it the "fell off the truck" store, because its stock changed soooo much week to week. Everything was generic, but everything was cheap, so I could pick up fruits, low sodium ramen, whole wheat bread, and lunchmeat as necessary.

:sigh: so the fridge is out of the picture for me...

I didn't wanna buy one because it's just a lousy investment for me considering that I just don't have space for it when I'm not in school. I was going to rent one b/c it was only $60 for the whole year, but they're out...

I'm going to look into those books..

I'm not a vegetarian but I like this book called "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Carole Raymond that I used when I was living in the college dorms. It helps a lot in giving cheap and quick recipes plus explains a lot about getting good value out of kitchenware.

Heya,

I know what you mean school is a lot of mula, isn't it?

As far as fruit goes, if you don't buy a lot at a time, you don't necessarily need to keep it in the fridge, have a little fruit bowl with some apples and grapes or something. That way you'll also see them all the time and feel incentive to eat them.

Maybe stock up on some peanut butter and healthy crackers too? Like wheat thins or WASA or Ryvita... I find I've started to just eat small meals throughout the day. A couple of crackers with peanut butter is a great snack. Or even have some nuts.

Do you have a kettle? You could get yourself some teas, which are great when you just want SOMETHING but you don't know what... That sort of thing.

There are a few dorm-room diet books out there, I remember them from a couple years back too. I think one was even called the Dorm Diet by Daphne Oz, I never read it but it looked interesting...

well, i wish i would have asked for this advice a couple years ago when i was still in school! haha, then maybe i wouldnt be in this mess!

ahh well....

anyway, i have recently started eating 'healthier' and even tho i am out of college, im still broke and i still stay up late, so im hoping this might be helpful.

some small things that i did to cut down on fat and calories was to not buy anything that wasnt ok for me. nothing at all. for sweet stuff i get those 100 calorie packs, sugar free jello, low fat pudding, etc etc. if you dont have a fridge, i dont know how doable this will be, but i have been getting 'eggbeaters' instead of regular eggs, i get wheat pitas instead of my normal bread, fat free mayo and cream cheese...

i dont know, i guess my biggest advice would to not keep anything in your dorm room that is bad. just get in the habit of buying the healtheir alternative

I struggled with this my freshman year. Our cafeteria has a lot more healthy options since I moved off campus and am not forced to eat there everyday. They had this little sandwich place and I honestly got a smoked turkey with provolgne and fat free ranch EVERY SINGLE DAY. The sandwich guy would see me walk in and start making it- pathetic. I usually ate pretzels with it until second semester when they started carrying baked lays. I was pretty lucky because we also have a convience store-like place on campus we can buy things there with our meal plan money. I lived off of honey nut cheerios for the last about 3 months when I couldn't stand the thought of turkey anymore. Usually you can find healthy options in cafeteria food when you think they aren't- you just have to get creative. I love chicken so I used to peel the crispy outside off of chicken strips. Now that I said that- I can't believe I did that it sounds gross.

I know whats it like having to eat healthy on a college budget, I ate Ronzoni penne with fat free red vinagerette dressing (very cheap meal!) pretty consistently when we'd be in track season and I didn't have time to work.

There are definitely things you can buy that don't require a fridge.. a few I can think of are:
cans of V8 juice (if you dont mind not drinking it cold)
fruit
applesauce
peanut butter
crackers
canned tuna

It's tough without a fridge but it's better to snack on crackers and tuna than a chocolate bar.