Eat this, not that

Let’s face it: it’s tough to eat well at college. Cafeteria food is never going to win a flavor award or be the featured item at one of Emeril’s restaurants, but if you’re smart, you can be a winner on campus, or at least break even.

What I’m talking about is nutrition: fats, calories, vitamins, the stuff of middle school health classes. The difference between good and bad food isn’t always that easy to see, especially when your choice is between two very similar meals that have vastly differing nutritional values.

For instance, say you wanted a chicken sandwich from Yella’s Grill. Your main choices are the Philly-style chicken cheesesteak or the grilled chicken breast. Which to choose? Well, the cheesesteak has a whopping 770 calories, nearly the equivalent of a Burger King tendercrisp chicken sandwich. Compare that to the grilled chicken breast’s modest 490 calories, including it’s relatively low fat total of 20g versus the cheesesteak’s 36g. That’s even after you include the bun, lettuce and tomato.

So then what about beef? Well, a double cheeseburger at Yella’s has 940 calories in a single sandwich and contains a massive 21g of saturated fat; that’s 105% of your daily recommended intake. On the other hand, the plain Philly steak sandwich, minus the cheese, has only 550 calories and barely half the saturated fat of its beefy cousin the burger.

So is turkey safe? Yes and no. A plain turkey sub, without cheese, has 310 calories and a rather decent ratio of protein to fat at 25g to 14g. A turkey club, however, blows its brother away with 900 calories and a barely passable ratio of 56g protein to 39g fat. In addition, the bacon and cheese of a turkey club sends the sodium content skyrocketing to 2530mg. That is your entire day’s worth of salt in a single sandwich.

While many agree that french fries are rarely a good food choice, here’s the facts. A 4oz. serving of fries (that’s slightly more than a McValue order of McDonald’s fries) has 240 calories, 22g of carbs-roughly 7 percent of your daily value- and 16g of fat, 25 percent of the recommended value. Not terrible numbers themselves, but fries offer no other nutritional goodness. They have virtually zero vitamins and minerals and negligible amounts of proteins. When you take into consideration that fries are eaten as a side dish to a sandwich like the double cheeseburger, the numbers really start to add up.

So in short, be smart with your food choices. Eat fresh, whole fruits and vegetables whenever possible, and when it’s not, visit Sodexho’s wellnees tool called the nutrition calculator at balancemindbodysoul.com to learn what’s the next best choice. Then you’ll see why the tuna salad sandwich is arguably Yella’s sandwich champion. (Hint: lower than 300 calories while still offering low fat, 18g of protein and 35 percent of your Vitamin A.)