The stereotype of "the poor college student" is a stereotype for a reason, we're almost all poor and we're all college students. Trying to be healthy in college is hard because healthy food can be expensive and unhealthy food is cheap, available at a drive-thru at 12 AM, and everybody goes to Taco Bell.
I've found that the key to eating healthy is just finding healthy foods that you actually like and making those foods available when you're hungry. Now that may sound over-simplified but if you were to take your drive-thru money and spend (most of) it at the grocery store instead you're much more prone to make healthy decisions!
If you can get your booty on over to the grocery store, here are a few things worth spending your money on:
1. Oats
If you get plain oats or a box of oatmeal packets you basically have breakfast for weeks. Oatmeal is super easy in a dorm room because all you need is a microwave or hot water and viola! You have a snack that will actually fill you up. You can also make over-night oats by putting oats and water, milk or yogurt (which I'm sure you can smuggle from your dining hall) in a container then just put it in your fridge overnight and you have breakfast waiting for you in the morning.
2. Popcorn
Okay: popcorn can actually be super healthy. It's a whole grain has vitamins and minerals, protein and fiber, AND it tastes good. You just have to look at the nutrition labels to make sure you're choosing a good option!
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
3. Tortillas
These are kind of a new discovery for me but wowow you can do a lot with tortillas. Look for a low carb or whole grain tortilla package and you'll find that you can get a tasty, fluffy tortilla that's packed with fiber and protein! Just add some nut butter, fruits, cheese, meats, veggies, whatever you're craving (or whatever you snagged from the dining hall earlier) and you have a super good and cheap wrap!
(I buy these)
4. Nut Butter
This can be peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, nutella, chocolate flavored nut butter, powdered nut butter...the possibilities are almost endless. It's cheap, high protein and could probably survive the apocalypse. You can put it in your oatmeal, put it on a tortilla, eat it off a spoon, drizzle it on popcorn; basically, eat it all day erry day.
5. Cheese Sticks
What more explanation do you need? Although added benefits are protein, calcium and quesadillas.
6. Granola Bars
Now these ones are a little tricky because you can get really good healthy ones or you can easily get glorified candy bars. What I look for in a granola bar is cheap, low sugar, high protein, high fiber. Now my favorite bars are quest bars, but they are not cheap so I'll usually go for a high protein or fiber nature valley bar.
7. French Fries
These can be made in the dorm and can be a health conscious snack! Recently I found this in my local Walmart:
So naturally I tried them and they are heaven in a package. Then after those were gone I went and got a bag of frozen fries and started re-using the package to make fries on the daily. My argument for them being health-conscious is that you can control your portion size before you start eating them so its waayyy easier to not go crazy on them and they aren't deep fried!
8. Cereal
Like granola bars this is very subjective to the type of cereal you buy but Special K, Kashi and General Mills can be pretty healthy and tasty. Plus, eating cereal out of the box is kind of like eating the sweet version of a bag of chips.
In conclusion, failure to plan is planning to fail so plan ahead for the munchies and you can save yourself from (most of) those late-night runs to your local fast food joint.
