Healthy Options For Hungry Hostelites
All the hard work that you put in to prepare for your competitive exams have paid off and you have landed in a fairly good college. The euphoria is over and you now face the real challenge of shifting to the college hostel. Living in a hostel ¡s a major transition from the comfort and protection of home to a place that is new and hostile, where you are expected to look after yourself.
Staying by yourself makes you independent, teaches you decision making and also survival instincts. In a hostel you are not only bound by rules and regulations. you are also dependent on the hostel cafeteria for food.
Hostel food is neither complete in terms of nutrition nor is ¡t the healthiest and tastiest form of food
It’s a no brainer that hostel food is neither complete in terms of nutrition nor is it the healthiest and tastiest form of food. Young boys and girls who move to the hostel face a constant challenge of eating wholesome and healthy food. The monotony of hostel food also forces one to binge on unhealthy snack options and convenience foods, ranging from instant noodles, ready to eat meals, chips. cookies to sugar laden drinks.
As young minds go through the grind of college, exams. assignments and long hours of studying, good nutrition and some physical activity is needed for support. Listed below are a few simple tips to ensure hostelites get the required nutrition they need.
Eat The Major Meals
Although hostel food may not be very palatable and healthy but you do need your daily dose of nutrition ¡n the form of dais, chappati, rice and vegetables to keep you going. You can pick and choose from sambar and dal, avoid the vegetables you are not very fond of, but try to eat a respectable portion of whatever is available.
Eat In The Mess With Your Friends
Don’t carry the cafeteria food back to your room and plan to eat it at leisure. Food is definitely more palatable. interesting and warm when it is served in the caté. liii is taken to your room, it will become cold and unpalatable. Also eating with friends and having a conversation over a meal makes even the most terribly tasting food more palatable as compared to eating alone in your room.
Stock Up On Healthy Snacks
Keep provisions for hunger pangs between meals and for late night study sessions. Buy some seasonal fruits and vegetables that can be eaten raw and don’t require refrigeration. Apples, pears, oranges. plums, melons, guava and grapes are fruits that can be eaten on the go. Cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, papaya and mangoes need to be cut before eating but are great for snacking. Keep an airtight jar full of nuts and another one of roasted grams that you can munch on while studying. Other healthy snacks could be puffed rice, soya or wheat
Get Your Calcium And Protein
From a local store dose to the college buy and stock up on tetra packs of milk, curds, buttermilk or soymilk for immediate consumption that are available in single serving packs. As these are perishables, consume them immediately or by the end of the day. See that you get a minimum of 500ml of milk or its products in a day.
Cook Up Healthy Stuff|
On a weekend, dont just rush out to eat, but get your buddies to make something healthy and tasty. If there is a common cooking area with some basics like a kettle and a few pans, a few options could be boiling or scrambling eggs and having then with toast, a quick salad and some milk. You could also assemble a cold sandwich using simple ingredients such as cucumber, tomatoes, butter and some whole grain bread.
Keep an airtight jar full of nuts and another jar full of roasted grams that you can munch on while studying. Include other healthy snacks like puffed rice, soya or wheat
Studies have shown that young boys and girls in hostels neglect food, eat less, do not eat fruits. vegetables or nuts as they are not served in the mess and depend increasingly, on outside food. It is therefore very important to take a stock of your daily routine and figure out how you can eat healthy and not tall in to the pit of deficiency, obesity and low nutrition.