Gilda Gazor Gazor is a fourth-year
political science student. E-mail her at ggazor@media.ucla.edu.
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Since you’ve been in college, many things have changed.
Home-cooked meals, regular eating hours and proper sleep are no
longer part of your vocabulary. With little time to cook, you often
end up eating out or getting fast food. In the Village, it’s
never hard to get something to eat, but it is hard to find
something healthy. Follow this nutrition guide for dining in the
Village and you will feel better about yourself before you know
it.
It’s easy to avoid restaurants that are visibly bad for
you, like LaMonica’s or In-N-Out. But it’s not so easy
to recognize the hidden evil at some of the places that seem
healthy.
Baja Fresh, for example, with its healthy image, makes you think
that you would think they serve low-fat food. So, it’s
shocking to find out that one Ultimo Burrito contains over 1000
calories and 45 grams of fat! Maybe that much can be expected of a
burrito with sour cream and cheese, but what about the smoothies
from Jamba Juice? Can you believe that each regular smoothie
contains about 400 calories?
If you are like most people on this campus, these numbers make
no sense to you. People are always talking about calories and fat
grams, but what do they mean? The most important thing to
understand is that to avoid gaining weight, your daily intake of
food should not exceed 2,000 calories and 65 grams of fat. Broken
down, that’s 666 calories and 21 grams of fat per meal.
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It only takes 3,500 extra calories to gain one pound. That means
145 extra calories per day will add up to 15 pounds at the end of
the year (Arthur Ashe Center). Four years of college plus 15 pounds
per year will not look like a pretty sight on graduation day.
So, how do you know if what you’re eating fits into this
equation? Go online and look up the menus of your favorite
restaurants to see if what you’re eating is OK. This way, you
don’t have to avoid your favorite quick meals, but you can
choose healthier options over the fatty ones you’re used to.
I’ve provided a chart of some sample menus to give you an
idea. But it’s easy to do the research on your own, just be
weary of eating anywhere that does not provide the nutritional
values of their food.
Also, look at the labels of every snack or any packaged food you
eat. You may have second thoughts about eating those Girl Scouts
cookies when you see that only 4 cookies equals one meal!
Also, pay attention to the serving size. This is where food
companies get you, by showing you the smallest portion to make you
think it represents the entire portion. If one bag of chips
contains 300 calories per serving, and one serving is only half a
bag, it means the entire bag is 600 calories.
I will admit that it’s not always easy to know what you
are eating. If you have a hot date this weekend and you two are
going to dinner, the Spago menu is probably not posted online. But
you can still make a good decision instead of filling up on water
and pretending to be full.
Order what you want, but tell the waiter to prepare the food
without any oil and to broil, grill or bake instead of frying
anything. Order a salad, with vinaigrette dressing on the side, to
fill you up before you eat the meal. Fish and chicken are always
good options and trade the mashed potatoes for a baked potato with
no butter or sour cream. You can also go for healthy food like
sushi. One piece of a California roll only has around 20
calories.
With finals around the corner it will be difficult to follow
these new eating habits. Losing sleep, awkward eating hours, not
working out and dehydration from too much caffeine, only lead to
bad eating decisions. If you ignore your body during such a
stressful time, it will be more difficult to maintain your focus
and energy that will help you study. Before you fall into the same
pattern again, take control and make a lifestyle change that will
set a better pattern for the rest of your college career and
life.
The best part about being aware of what you eat is that it
changes your life and motivates you to be healthy in other ways.
You may start hitting the gym or going for hikes and bike rides.
Right now is the time to set your standards for quality of life.
So, don’t go to Diddy Riese tonight, make a change for the
better and the satisfaction will last a lot longer than that ice
cream sandwich.