Healthy Eating Habits and Dining Halls: 10 Tips for College Students

If you’re a new college freshman living and dining on campus, the freedom to select what and when you eat each meal represents one of those little transitions into adulthood. Without Mom or Dad there to lovingly ensure a well-balanced diet, you may face a cafeteria full of choices that make healthy eating habits hard to keep up. Here are ten tips for college students using dining halls.

1. Opt for traditional dining halls.
If you have a choice between a fast food court and a more traditional dining hall with buffet options, go for the latter. Chances are that you’ll get more variety, and you can control the portions, the sides, and other details more easily to keep healthy eating habits on track.

2. Look Around!
Take some time to explore everything that’s offered. First-year college students, especially during the early weeks, move in packs and are afraid to strike out on their own – even for things as simple as navigating layouts of dining halls. Don’t be afraid to explore, as you might find some healthy foods lurking on a side table or in the back of a salad bar. One girl I know didn’t realize that hummus and pitas were a daily option at her cafeteria until about a month into the semester!

3. Be creative.
Think beyond the pre-fabbed, line-style menu. Just because an entrÃ?©e like a chicken breast is lined up with side items like mashed potatoes, gravy, and fried cauliflower with cheese sauce doesn’t mean you need to eat that combination. Maybe you’d rather get just the chicken breast and slice it up over a hand-crafted bed of greens from the salad bar or some brown rice from the Chinese food line? Especially in the all-you-can-eat dining halls, you can inventively combine meats, vegetables, fruits, carbs, and other items to create something healthy that you also find palatable.

4. Make Your Own.
Take advantage of “make your own” options for pasta dishes, stir-fried meals, and sandwiches. Dining halls are finding that college students respond well to selecting their own ingredients and having staff prepare them to order, leaving room for healthy eating habits. For example, if they will stir fry a bowl of ingredients that you select from a self-serve bar, you can load up on vitamin-rich broccoli, lean meats, and prudent sauces.

5. Don’t rush yourself.
When you run to dining halls in a hurry to grab a quick 15-minute meal, you’re more likely to opt for things resembling fast food, like pizza, hamburgers, and fried chicken fingers because they’re easy eats. But if you allow yourself enough time, you’re more likely to pursue healthy eating habits. Give yourself 45 minutes or an hour, and eat with friends so the experience is less hurried.

6. Don’t go too late!
Try not to eat right before the dining halls close unless your schedule makes it impossible. If you go late and they’re only serving food for another 20 minutes, your choices will be picked over and the cafeteria staff may start putting things like the salad bar away for the night. In general, most dining halls start to wind down their operations during the last half-hour of lunch or dinner.

7. Speak up!
If you’re going through a dining hall line and you want something served without a component, don’t be afraid to ask. The employees can’t pick apart something that’s premade, but they can leave something off if they’re assembling based on your specifications. Tell the hairnetted, grinning face behind the line to hold the fried onions on that turkey burger, for example. Being vocal is essential to healthy eating habits at college.

8. Can the Soda.
Soda – and especially free soda – isn’t the healthiest choice of beverage. There will almost always be juices, teas, water, and other selections instead. You don’t have to give up soda entirely, but the bottomless refills on Mountain Dew don’t correspond with healthy eating habits.

9. More Than Just Desserts
Pick one good dessert, and don’t eat too much of it. The unlimited dessert area of most dining halls can be a dangerous place for college students trying to keep up healthy eating habits. The temptation is there to have ice cream, cake, AND cookies all at once or to eat two or three slices of cheesecake – and no one’s going to stop you. You have to police yourself when it comes to sweets, or else you’ll undo all the good you did by eating a sensible meal.

10. Know your resources.
Visit the “dining services” web page. Whatever they call themselves, the department that manages dining halls, snack bars, and other food service operations usually maintains a website that provides more detailed information about the menu choices, including nutrition facts, comment/feedback forms, and other resources related to healthy eating habits for college students.