It is undeniably overwhelming the first time you walk into the dining hall; each direction you face displays a different variation of every kind of food imaginable. They don't just have edamame: they have edamame with five different Mediterranean spices on them (I know from experience). The variety of meats and various ways to prepare them is enough to make you dizzy, and don't even get me started on the dessert. For the first few days (or for some, weeks), it can be incredibly fun to construct a towering plateful of delicious looking foods and eat until your heart's content. But this type of lifestyle is incredibly unhealthy in the long run due to the resulting imbalance of necessary dietary components, as well as the side-effects of over-eating.
Portion control plays a huge factor in making smart decisions in the dining hall. I don't doubt that you CAN eat three slices of cheesecake, but do you really want to? Eating until you're stuffed or "can't possibly fit anything else" is not only unhealthy, but dangerous over time. Continuous overeating causes the stomach to expand and push against your organs, all while they are simultaneously overworking to produce extra amounts of hormones and enzymes to break down the excess food. Further, it upsets the rhythm of your circadian clock, which controls your sleep cycles, thus making it harder for you to sleep at night. Preventing this extreme (but plausible) calamity is fairly simple: exercise the use of moderation, meaning that it's okay to have that fried chicken sandwich or that slice of double chocolate cake, just not for every single meal, every single day. In fact, eating junk food every so often makes it easier to continue with this healthy lifestyle, rather than completing abstaining from anything remotely bad ever again, which often results in binge-eating and a loss of optimism. Also, you'll probably appreciate eating these types of food more if it acts as a reward, versus something you habitually eat every day. But in between these indulgences, make sure that you are aware of what else you put onto your plate.
Food waste is a major problem in our world right now, so think before you pile on that extra scoop of mashed potatoes that you know you probably won't finish. Remember, you can always go back for seconds, but you can't put back food you didn't finish. Often times, you're more full than you know, and you will feel much better depositing an empty plate onto the dish rack versus one half-filled.
Another word of warning is to be aware of the quality you are being served. Even though you are paying half a fortune for your meals, that doesn't mean they are always using the best possible ingredients. Inorganic meat products can contain hormones that are detrimental to your health, and items like fruits and vegetables are often grown with GMOs and pesticides. Obviously, though, it is impossible to avoid these types of food in order to get the correct daily dietary components, so proceed with caution.
Finally, continue to keep eating food fun! Continue to have the thrill of not always knowing what you're going to eat that day, and continue to dart from station to station with an eagerness that only food can satisfy. But from now on, do so with some of the important takeaways you (hopefully) learned, in the back of your mind. Now, go kick some dining-hall butt.
