Being a student can take a toll on your body. You have exams and deadlines, as well as added stress. All of this combined can lead to you feeling tired and not making the best choices when it comes to food. Eating healthy as a college student is tough if you lack the time to do so. Being an international student who lives away from family and familiarity can make eating healthy even more difficult than it should be.
It’s important to stay healthy as your body and mind is crucial towards helping you be the best student you can. Your physical body plays an important role in ensuring that your mental state is healthy as well. The foods that we consume can help us feel energized, if done right.
Nutritionist Mayanka Singhal in association with OCTA conducted an interactive Workshop on Healthy Eating, Diet and Easy Recipes for young adults preparing to go overseas for their academics. The workshop was conducted by Mayanka in conversation with Payal Chitlangia(admissions coach) where they addressed the concerns of the students and their parents.
Over 25 students participated in the workshop. Mayanka spoke about easy breakfast options like 3 ingredient smoothies, nut butter, hazards related to packaged food, ingredients one should look out for while buying processed food, eating regularity, intermittent fasting, having soaked seeds, roasted seeds and nuts, one-pot meals, etc. Mayanka Singhal focuses on providing lifestyle advice and diabetes education and concentrates on designing diets based on a person’s particular preferences, seasonal food availability, regional dietary patterns, and health status. She is also a Life Member of the Indian Nutrition Society and the Indian Diabetes Association.
“In recent times we can see young students moving abroad for higher studies. And in most cases the students as well as their parents are unaware of the unhealthy lifestyle and food that prevails. As a nutritionist I took the initiative to provide them a wider knowledge of food and lifestyle while being in abroad and we tried to help them in this session on how to make healthy choices.” – Mayanka Singhal Payal Chitlangia guides students from all over the world who want to pursue higher education at international universities. Her pupils have graduated from and continued to study at numerous top universities over the past 13 years, including Harvard, Stanford, The Ivy League Colleges, London School of Economics, SMU, and others.
Payal Chitlangia stated, “My students go to highly competitive colleges and often have to juggle immense amounts of work within timelines and deadlines. Their focus on eating healthy and regularly is lost and their health suffers as a result. It is important that they learn simple ways to eat smartly and prioritise their health while they strive for academic and career success.” The workshop was assisted by Chef Ritabrata Biswas who demonstrated healthy dishes and recipes to the students and their mothers such as salads, one-bowl meals, grilled chicken, easy-to-cook steaks and more. He is skilled in contemporary cooking and has a strong desire to include regional flavours into his creations of international cuisine.
“Being a Chef it’s always a challenge and responsibility to provide a hygienic and healthy meal. From procuring an ingredient to processing I always keep in mind that at the end of the day someone is going to eat that. And that’s the motivation for me to serve a good healthy food.” – Chef Ritrabrata Biswas.
