You are what you eat; eating healthy is an affordable option for everyone

By MARISSA RIVERA, Staff Reporter |

At the beginning of each year, many people make promises to themselves to improve certain aspects of their lives. One common resolution is to eat better, but some people struggle to stick to that goal.

According to Trent Oneal, Amarillo College intramural coordinator, many people fail to keep their healthy eating resolutions because they take the wrong approach.

“One thing they can do is stop listening to fads, stop looking stuff up on the internet, so much of that is not good information – mostly heresy and theories, none of them are tested or tired or true,” Oneal said.

Some AC students said they have tried strategies for making healthier eating choices.

“Start off by slowly cutting out sweets,” Nazario Maestas, general studies major, said.

Sometimes schedules make it difficult to eat at normal mealtimes or eat proper meals, Oneal said. “It is more than what you eat, often times it not even what you eat. It’s when you eat it. It is tough,” he said, adding that healthy eating can be hard when there isn’t time in the day to stop and eat.

Students also said they have issues about spending money on healthy food, but Maestas disagreed. “It’s not as hard as people think it is,” he said.

Others agreed that eating healthy could be affordable.

“Buying water instead of soft drinks and fruits and vegetables do not cost much,” Melinda Rivera, a nursing major, said.

There are some options on campus that provide students with healthy food items. “Chick-fil-a comes on campus and they have wonderful food items that are perfectly healthy,” Oneal said.

Another strategy is to bring food to campus. “I often see students bring stuff from home. They come to the Burrow and microwave their food they made. If they make healthy choices at home, it often times inspires other students to eat healthier as well,” Oneal said.