Making Sense of What Controls your Diet: Episode 2

In this podcast episode, the host interviews two college students, Sarah and Preston, about how their diets have changed since coming to college. They discuss the influence of social interactions on their eating habits and the challenges of finding healthy options on campus. Sarah mentions that she plans to start cooking and basing her meals on whole foods when she lives on her own. Preston, on the other hand, admits to not paying much attention to his diet and just eating whatever is available. The host also discusses the recommended diet for young adults, including reducing fats and salts and including foods rich in iron and calcium. They touch on the difficulties of maintaining a healthy diet as a nursing student, such as irregular meals and high consumption of fast food. Overall, the interview provides insights into the impact of college life on students' diets and their plans for the future. Hi everyone, and welcome back to Making Sense of What Controls Your Diet. Quick side note before we start this next episode, I forgot to include my sources during the last podcast, so those will be in the footnote under the first one. All right, so let's get into our second episode. Today we're going to have two special guests on our podcast, my two good friends Preston and Sarah. Would you guys like to introduce yourselves? Yeah, thanks for that introduction, Sarah. My name is Sarah Maltoff, and I'm a freshman nursing major here at Eau Claire, and I'm excited to talk about diet today. My name is Preston Carlisle. I'm a freshman here at Eau Claire, and I'm a nursing major as well, and I'm also a student athlete. Perfect, thank you. So while we have our guests here today, we're going to be discussing how your diets have changed since you went to college. And just so it's a little diverse, we have Preston here, who is an athlete, and then Sarah, who just isn't an athlete, but that's okay. I am an ex-athlete, okay? Yeah, ex-athlete and a real athlete. Okay, so just to kick us started, I'm going to ask you guys a question. So one thing that I did while I was looking at was how social relationships play a role in determining how you eat. So while being here and making new friends, do you guys think that social interactions affect your diet? Yeah, I would definitely agree with that statement. I usually get breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my friend Sarah here. And I would say that our diets definitely correlate a lot. In the beginning of the semester, we get the same thing, and at the end of the semester, we get the same thing. But we used to get donuts every day for breakfast. And we then realized that that probably wasn't the greatest idea, so we made a change. And we kind of stick to the same diet, though Sarah is kind of on a special diet right now, which I haven't done. Yes, no sugar, no sugar. Yeah, but I definitely say it makes an impact. Preston, I don't know if you have anything to say. You know, I really haven't paid too much attention to my diet. I just kind of go to Hilltop with the boys and get some food and just kind of munch around a little bit. And whatever you can find, you just make do. I don't really match diets like you guys. No, I just kind of eat what you can that's edible. All right, so Sarah said yes, you think, social. But Preston does whatever he wants, I guess. I would agree with that. One more thing I'd like to add is definitely with the friends thing. Like if your friends like to go out to eat a lot, and even healthy, I feel like it's going to make you go out to eat a lot more. Sarah and I both don't usually do that because we don't have cars, but so, yeah. Yeah, okay, perfect. So since you guys are both college students now, how do you see your diet has changed since home and now? And then how do you think in the future, living on your own, that will change? Sarah, you want to go first? Oh, yeah, sure. So I guess I never really was worried about my diet coming to college because I always ate pretty healthy. And being an athlete in high school, I just, like, ate a lot all the time. But coming to college, there weren't, like, nearly as many healthy options as I thought there was going to be. I found there to be a lot more, like, processed and, like, fried foods. It's just, like, the whole foods and, like, nutrient-rich foods weren't really there. So we definitely have, like, made it work, but I've definitely seen it make an impact on my diet for the negative effect. So that's been kind of tough. But I'm really excited to live on my own next year and start cooking and start really basing my meals on whole foods. Yeah, I don't know. I just kind of eat what you can, I guess. Really not having to make my own food, prepare my own food has been very different. At the same time, you can't really complain with what you get. Subpar meals for sure, but at the end of the day, you just kind of make do because at the end of the day, you're paying for your meal plan, so you got to eat what you got to eat. But, yeah, so really the biggest change coming to college was having a meal plan, and someone's making it for you other than your mother. And it's not the greatest, really, but you can't really complain. Do you think it's hard to maintain your diet with wrestling with what Hilltop has to offer you? Oh, for sure. I mean, you look at the number one thing they use to keep food fresh and healthy is definitely salt and processed. So the salts alone are going to retain water. So when I'm trying to cut weight in the wrestling season, all it's doing is hanging onto water for me. That's not really helping me at all. Okay. Interesting. I like that response. Okay, so kind of going on off that last question, I have here from a source, The Better Health, that kind of explains what a diet for older teenagers and young adults should look like. It basically says reducing the amounts of fats and salts in our diets and being careful to include foods that are rich in iron and calcium. And also making sure that we exercise and limit our alcohol intake. So being in college, do you think that all of these lists are obtainable? Yeah, I definitely say that's doable in college. Definitely a little more hard. You're going to have to probably work for it, but I think it's definitely obtainable. I'd say, like, the stuff they put out front most of the time is often the high-fat, high-sodium, high-processed foods, and it's just, like, really easily accessible. But they do definitely have some healthy options. You just have to choose it. And then obviously getting a good amount of protein in and having a well-balanced diet is important if you're going to be doing any sort of exercise or working out. And then just staying away from the bad foods. Or I would just say, yeah, maybe in small portions. You don't really want to restrict yourself too much. But I would say definitely limit yourself. Yeah, so you talk about less on the fat and less on the salts. So kind of like I said earlier, it's hard with the salts being everything is processed, but it's not going to be that way because you're serving large portions to large kids. So overall, I mean, really, I mean, when you're mass-producing things, you're going to have a lot of salts in general. So staying away from fats, that's more of a personal choice by a student. Yeah, like maybe don't pick the fried food if you can. I noticed there are some healthy options at the cafe. But then you also mentioned exercise. Personally, that's easily obtainable. Some days I can't keep calories on. But other days, it's real easy to let yourself go. I mean, a lot of people pack on the freshman 15, and you'll see that around here. I mean, you'll get that. But, yeah, so that's one thing. You just kind of like Sarah said, you got to work for it. Okay, now Preston, this one's kind of more aimed towards you. According to our Better Health Channel, an athlete's diet should be 45% to 65% carbs, 15% to 25% protein, and then 20% to 35% fat. Is there any factors in college that prevents you from maintaining this list? Interesting. Well, I mean, not really because carbs are pretty easy to get to. We were talking, was it 55% to 60% carbs, I think you said? Yes. That's pretty easy to get to. You can go have one of those Subway-looking sandwiches up top, and right there is a whole bunch of carbs. Protein is a little more difficult. I mean, you're looking at your chicken, a little bit of rice action, some fats. Those just kind of come with it. Those can be sugars too, I suppose. But, I don't know, just mainly getting a bowl of fruit a day keeps the doctor away. And that's a good way to get after it. Yeah, I really liked your thoughts on that question. So, as you guys mentioned in the beginning, you're both nursing students. And according to the National Library of Medicine, being a student causes irregular meals, inadequate snacks, high consumption of fast food, and insufficient consumption of fruit and vegetables. It's just kind of regular pattern of students. Do you think with having a hard major that this pertains to you or that your diet has suffered from this? Yeah, I definitely think it has contributed to my diet. I have been just constantly studying with classes. The classes are really hard this semester. And I feel like it's given me less time to focus on eating healthy, I guess just out of convenience. Also, with working out and stuff, I definitely have not put as much time into exercise this semester as last, just due to the high amount of schoolwork that we have. And I think that will definitely play a big role next year as we have to prepare our own meals. And I think it's going to be a lot harder to balance that time and cut out that time out of your day to focus on preparing healthy meals. Because healthy meals take a lot longer to prepare than unhealthy meals do. Preston, anything you want to add? Yeah, I mean, it's just been go to class and eat, really. So my morning schedule is a pretty good one. You wake up early at 530. You get to Lyft. After Lyft, you hustle your butt to the cafe and you eat a decent amount of food. You go to your 8 a.m. and your other classes in the morning. You come back up. You eat some more food. You go take a nap. And you go get some more food before your more classes. And after class, you go and get some more food. So all I really got to say is it's a lot of food right now. But at the same time, it's bulking season, baby. Do you think that you're getting healthy food during your meals or you're just eating whatever to eat? You know, there's a difference between a dirty bulk and a bulk. So, yeah, there's a little dirty bulk aspect to it, but you get your bowl of fruit a day and you're fine. You're really on about that fruit, Preston. Yeah, it's the one thing that's consistent. The fruit's always bad, but you can always count on it being there. Yeah, that's very true. All right, thank you guys. All right, so thank you guys for joining me today. I just want to hear your thoughts. And after our talk today, do you have a better perspective of what college has done to your diet and how you're going to change it in the future? Yeah, I definitely have thought about it in the past, but this is just bringing to light a couple more issues. It just gets me kind of excited for next year, that we only have one more week at Hilltop. Not that I hate it that much, but I think it will just be a lot easier to prioritize eating well when you're able to buy groceries and prepare food on your own. So, yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, it was a pretty interesting talk today. It kind of brought to life what I'm eating. And, yeah, I mean, I truly think that a bowl a day of fruit is good for you. And you just got to, when you're on the bulk, you got to eat as much as you can. So, yeah, thank you, Sarah, for having me. Yeah, all right. So this is the end of our second podcast, and I hope to see you guys in the future. Bye.