Eating healthy and getting all your nutrients is easy said and done at home, where if your mom is anything like mine, she makes sure vegetables are included in every dinner and milk is practically force-fed into your mouth before school. However, when you come to college, the responsibility of eating right and keeping your body strong is transferred over to yourself- and it’s an easy job to ignore. It’s a good idea to maintain your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables in college; eating pizza every day does not give you sufficient iron, calcium, vitamin a, b, c, or d- nor is it good for your waistline. As far as eating healthy at Binghamton- it’s not a walk in the park but the school does provide various healthy options for us.
The fact that we have a frozen yogurt place in the union is a beautiful thing- having worked at a frozen yogurt shop in high school, I’m able to whip up something different almost every time. If you want just frozen yogurt, get some fresh fruit like raspberries or strawberries on top of it and/or some granola to add a healthy crunch. One of my favorite things is the smoothie bowls. They’re so underrated but they absolutely shouldn’t be because they are amazing. They have like 3 different types, but you can alter your order and switch fruits out of each other if you have any preferences. And if you want a super easy breakfast or a general healthy boost, the endless varieties of smoothies are always rocking my world. Try to get one before class instead of stopping at the bearcat café and getting an iced macchiato one day- it’ll do much good for you.
Also, garden toss in the marketplace has the absolute freshest ingredients and their chipotle mayo and guacamole dressings are to die for. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. You can build your own salad or just choose one from the menu; either way it’ll be made right in front of you and if you’re lucky they’ll even throw in a warm buttery breadstick!
As far as the dining hall, Binghamton really does try its best to promote healthy eating at its stations. There are always an array of vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli, spinach, etc. Even if it looks a little gross- it never hurts to just get it and try it. Maybe you’ll discover a love for squash like I have. The salad station at the dining hall can’t beat garden toss, but it’s totally decent. Try your best to throw in as many toppings as you can- a salad isn’t supposed to be just romaine lettuce and dressing- that’s not doing any good for you. Put some veggies in, maybe even those adorable little cherry tomatoes or add in some protein like meat. My personal underrated favorite- baby corn. Shhh. Don’t say anything. Just try it.
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