Student Advice

What to Eat

Uni Compare  · Feb 14th 2022

You’ve left home and will be moving away to university, doesn’t have to mean living on tinned beans and pasta for three years.

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Eating a nutritious, balanced diet is so important, not just for your health and well-being, but for your studies too, they can help with what to eat when sick as well. A poor diet can lead to illness, a weakened immune system and a less-than-healthy appearance that can affect your self-esteem, confidence and concentration during lectures.

It’s all about ensuring you eat the correct food accompanied by a healthy and active lifestyle, which introduces the importance of sport at university, whether you're doing a Master's degree, an undergraduate degree or a Diploma of Higher Education. Kickstarting a healthy regime as soon as you get to university will lay the foundations for six nutritious and successful terms. Follow our top nutrition tips to ensure you perform to the best of your ability during these all-important three years as they will help you prepare for university.

Healthy Lifestyle

Basic Student Nutrition

When it comes to asking what to eat, five portions of grains, cereals, bread, rice and pasta every day, these also help when you’re asking what to eat when you have a cold as well, as they can help boost your immune system. Alongside your staple grains, you will need a good source of protein which comes from eggs, fish and poultry amongst others.

Make sure you always have a healthy portion of fruit and vegetables throughout the day with your meals, a top tip is to mix your colours as much as possible to get a variety of vitamins onto your plate. This with a good source of dairy products will put you on the right path to a healthy lifestyle.

When buying milk and other dairy products, try to steer clear of full-fat options and instead choose semi-skimmed and low-fat varieties. Small changes to your diet can make a world of difference in the long run.

Another tip is to steer clear of caffeinated drinks such as Red Bull and Monster Energy, although they may give you the quick boost you need for a 9 am lecture, they can be the cause of insomnia, migraines and in some cases anxiety.

These are just some of the tips to live a healthy university lifestyle, it’s pretty easy to get yourself into a bad routine, so keeping to these simple, but effective tips.

Eating a nutritious, balanced diet is so important, not just for your health and well-being, but for your studies too

Essential Foods For University You Might Forget:

Ever forget what you needed as soon as you step into the supermarket? Well, hopefully, our list of student essentials will help you with your very first food shop. Stocking up on these kitchen staples will help when you have run out of fresh ingredients and still need a balanced and nutritious meal. Moving out will help you learn more about cooking, you'll learn how to create your own meals and how to use different ingredients to elicit different flavours.

Here is the list of items we recommend to stock up on:

  • Teabags/Coffee
  • Sugar
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Vinegar
  • Sauces (Tomato, Mustard, Brown and Soy Sauce)
  • Dried Pasta and Noodles
  • Jam/Marmalade/Honey/Marmite
  • Tinned Soup/Chopped Tomatoes
  • Tinned Beans/Spaghetti
  • Tinned Tuna/Peas/Corn
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Mixed Herbs/Spices and Seasoning
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Biscuits/Chocolate/Cake
  • Eggs
  • Milk
  • Frozen Mixed Vegetables
  • Frozen Pizza

This isn’t a ‘must-have’ list, it’s simply here to help you plan your meals in advance without having to rely on fresh ingredients, it can help with a lot of things, for instance, if you’re looking for what to eat for breakfast or what to eat for dinner. Savvy shopping can save you hundreds each term and can lead to a healthy and happy lifestyle during your time at university.

The aforementioned list of food is also a good list of what to eat after gym as well and can also work when looking for what to eat after workout or what to eat before a workout. We recommend that you look into these foods when leaving the gym and also when looking for something to keep you going.

Moving out will help you learn more about cooking, you'll learn how to create your own meals and how to use different ingredients to elicit different flavours.

What to eat to lose weight

Losing weight is something that a lot of students look to do when they go to university. What with student discounts that lead students to get money off of gym memberships and with food being a bit cheaper in the student areas of a city, losing weight is a bit cheaper and easier than for non-students.

The food listed above is a great way to lose weight and still feel well fed at the end of it.

Uni Healthy Lifestyle

What to eat after being sick

It’s a bit disgusting to talk about, but some people do look into what to eat after vomiting. As we all know, vomiting is never nice and usually after vomiting, you're never really interested in idea of eating yet more food, but sometimes it can be really useful for you.

Foods like bananas, rice, dry toast or applesauce are perfect for any students that are looking for what to eat after being sick and drink plenty of water too.

What foods to eat to lower cholesterol

There are a few foods that you can eat to lower your cholesterol when at university. Being wary of heart disease is very important, especially at university, where you won’t be close to home, so you need to keep an eye on your cholesterol.

So what foods to eat to lower cholesterol?

  • Legumes
  • Avocados
  • Nuts (almonds and walnuts)
  • Fish
  • Fruit
  • Dark chocolate
  • Garlic
  • Wholegrains
  • Soy
  • Vegetables
  • Drink tea
  • Extra virgin olive oil

These foods will help you to lower your cholesterol and will also help you to lead a healthy lifestyle, while also incorporating the core food groups. These are also good if you’re looking for what to eat when you have diarrhoea.

Losing weight is something that a lot of students look to do when they go to university.

What to eat after food poisoning

If you find that you have been a victim of food poisoning, we recommend letting your stomach settle first. Drink plenty of water and this will help.

Sports drinks with electrolytes are hugely beneficial as well.

When it comes to actual food to eat, we recommend:

  • Bananas
  • Cereal
  • Egg whites
  • Toast
  • Applesauce
  • Saltines
  • Honey
  • Oatmeal
  • Peanut butter
  • Plain potatoes or mash
  • Rice

These foods will help as they are a lot softer on your stomach and will also be digested a lot easier as well. If you stick to low-fibre foods or low-fat foods, you will make it a lot better on your immune system and relieve some stress on the body.

Chicken with broccoli and peppers.

What to eat after tooth extraction

Tooth extraction is unlikely when you're at university since you likely won’t be registered to the local dentist, however, that doesn’t mean that some circumstances don't arise where you need to look into the possibilities of tooth extraction.

But have you looked into what to eat after tooth extraction? Well, these foods will help you a lot:

  • Soups
  • Yoghurt
  • Broths
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Applesauce
  • Scrambled eggs
  • Mashed banana
  • Ice cream
  • Avocado
  • Drink smoothies
  • Hummus
  • Cottage cheese
  • Oatmeal

These are very soft for your teeth to deal with and they will be perfect for soothing your teeth after one of them is removed.

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