I feel like most college students understand this dilemma. College students, who are not known for having a lot of money, eat very poorly on average when they are living away from home. This leads to a diet of Ramen noodles, pizza, and mac n cheese (trust me, I know). I went through this last year during my first semester away from home. Instead of gaining the “Freshman 15,” I kind of lost 15 pounds that semester. I’m not a big kid to begin with so I went from 145 to 130, and then down to 127 later that year. The social norm is that college students, because of being poor, either eat terribly or hardly eat at all. Thankfully I learned that something had to change.

A typical college student’s diet consists of quite a lot of carbs and not a lot of meat or protein. Carbs burn off quickly. With busy schedules it’s a lot easier to heat up pizza or other quick meals that do not have much protein. It is a lot cheaper too. Meat is expensive. I see it in the stores and cringe at the price of 4 dollars for a pound of ground beef. While eating too much and obesity are big problems in America, eating too little and undernourishment is just as big of an issue. Students should focus more on having a proper diet at college, whether they are living in the dorms and eating in dining halls, or living off-campus and having to buy their own food.