Eighteen students at the University of Kansas took the first step to leading a healthier lifestyle on Monday, March 9, 2015 by attending Kelsey Fortin’s Cook Well Live Well Cooking Class.
The Health Education Resource Office (HERO) hosted their fourth public Cook Well Live Well Cooking Class on Monday at Watkins Memorial Health Center. This class always consists of two parts. It started out with a simple nutrition class that informed the attendees on what makes a healthy meal.
This Eat Well Live Well Nutrition Program has the same core values as the cooking class but is personalized for individual students, according to the HERO website. A personalized routine and meal plan are available through this program based on the student’s body fat percent, weight, waist circumference, and other measurements.
The attendees of this month’s event ranged from newcomers to returning students. Yssa Delmundo, a sophomore at the University of Kansas, originally went for extra credit for her psychology class but was eager to return when she got word of this month’s class.
As an undergraduate student living in an off-campus apartment, Delmundo finds it difficult to eat healthy because of the cost. Delmundo takes the cheaper, alternative step in that direction, though, noting that she “definitely look[s] at the nutrition labels more often than before.” Eating healthy in an apartment, though, is exponentially easier than in the residence halls. The dining halls’ options for “healthy eating” are typically limited to a salad bar which can get “pretty old after a while,” according to Delmundo.
Britney Scott, a sophomore at the University of Kansas, didn’t know what to expect from this class. She went out of pure curiosity and was pleasantly surprised by the results. “It won’t be easy but i think it will be worth it,” said Scott when thinking about the idea of cooking alone.
The kitchen can be intimidating to the average college student. Kelsey Fortin knows this, referring to cooking as a “daunting task until you get in there and try it.” She can easily relate to the average student’s struggles as a 2013 graduate from the University of Kansas with her Bachelor of Science in Education, Community Health. Fortin advised students to experiment until they felt comfortable and to be open to trying new things. It was with this mindset that she found some of her favorite dishes like the vegetarian sweet potato black bean chili.
Not only does this intimidation hurt students’ health but it can also hurt their grades. Better memory was linked to healthy lifestyles across all age groups – especially college-aged subjects in a recent study by USA Today. Researchers were surprised that 14 percent of the youngest group (ages 18-39) reported issues with their memory. The researchers expected memory issues in the middle-age (40-59) and older (60-99) groups, of which 22 percent and 26 percent reported problems respectively, but not in the youngest group, according to this research.
With better memory comes better grades because of higher test scores. Of course studying is an important factor of good grades, but the energy to study is typically “the kind that is consistent, avoiding the highs and lows provided by sugar,” notes The Chicago Tribune. Students realize that this is hard to accomplish on their budget. Delmundo reflected that she would rather eat healthy but cannot afford this healthier lifestyle.
This problem goes beyond the university and is evident in many walks of life today. What many people fail to remember is that you can eat healthy without eating organic. The Chicago Tribune recommends reading nutrition labels while shopping.
“The fewer ingredients on the label the better; and if you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it. You can never go wrong if you choose “whole foods,” which are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed.”
Fortin and other employees can relate to this struggle as college graduates themselves. The Health Education Resource Office’s mission is “to be a source for University of Kansas community wellness through partnerships that support innovative approaches toward optimal health while maximizing academic and professional success,” according to their website.
Kelly Davis 