An entire physical education class, other students and patrons gathered Sept. 17 on South Campus to listen to a lecture on healthy meal planning. 

Laura Dehoyos from JPS Hospital gave information for busy college students. Good healthy eating could be shopping for organic foods or reading labels to count carbohydrates, she said.

Of course, shopping organic can be too expensive for college students, Dehoyos said.

“The cost per serving is less than your health per serving,” she said.

Dehoyos had an activity to learn to count carbohydrates with balanced meals, showing that the meal wwas better than a cup of ramen noodles or a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli, which contains more than the allotted amount of sodium per day in one serving.

To help her audience when shopping, Dehoyos defined two common terms found on packages. “Light” refers to reduced amounts of certain nutrients, and “free” usually means that a product contains a very small quantity of a substance or none at all.

“You can eat everything you want, only in moderation,” she said.

When low sodium or low fat is on the packaging, the serving size should be taken into consideration.

Healthy meal planning is even simple for busy college students. The key is in the palm of an eager hand as well as a proper portion size of meat, Dehoyos said.

“What should you do to meat before you cook it? Trim the fat,” she said.

-— Victoria Cross