In college, it is important to keep yourself well fed. Studying and running around at various activities takes a great deal out of you and you need something to sustain yourself and keep that brain-juice flowing. It is absolutely critical to eat between two and three square meals a day. You should never have to say to yourself, "It's just a meal, I can skip it." Rather, its is important to come to realize that you ought to take the time out of your day to sit down and enjoy some food. Eating will give you the energy that you need to keep going, and it also makes for a healthy lifestyle. In between your meals, you should also be able to treat yourself to some delectable little yum-yums that will tingle your taste buds and provide you with a little sustenance, but more than anything, just a party in your mouth. There are some fantastic treats that I would recommend to any college student. These little snacks have great importance, and will come in handy a lot of the time.
Cheez-It
This tasty, cheesy treat is one of the benchmarks of an important college snack diet. These crackers, made by the Kellogg Company, have just the right amount of cheese to fill your mouth with a whopping taste that will be good any time of the day. If you don't want to settle for just cheese, you can also get the Cheez-It varieties in parmesan, garlic, cheddar-jack, reduced fat, party mix, and hot and spicy. My personal favorite happens to be the original (I have a 3lb box of it in my room right now; it will last a week). Cheez-It's come in a rectangular shape that are approximately 1 inch by inch. There is a hole right in the middle of it, which has been claimed to allow Cheez-It's to bake more easily. The Cheez-It brand has used a number of different slogans to advertise their product, most recently using, "Get Your Own Box." This is a very accurate marketing campaign as the owner of Cheez-It's will most likely be very protecting of this booty. I have heard from some friends of an interesting combination of food and drink that can be done with Cheez-It's.
Place three Cheez-Its in your mouth and chew them up until they are a slushy, saliva-filled pulp. Then take a glass of root-beer (whatever brand you prefer), and swallow the Cheez-Its down with it.
Apparently this causes a taste sensation that makes your goose bumps get goose bumps. Try it out. Make sure to add Cheez-Its to your college snack diet.
Doritos
Sticking with a cheese theme here, the next option that you ought to consider to add to your college diet is Doritos. They are most popular for their, "Nacho Cheese" variety, but have many others that you should definitely consider sampling. For instance, there is blazin' buffalo ranch, cool ranch, fiery habanero, natural white nacho cheese, ranchero, salsa verde, smokin' cheddar BBQ (I'm salivating), spicy nacho, taco, toasted corn, wild white nacho, and who can forget cheeseburger. Doritos are also fun because of their shape. They are triangular, but often curl in weird formations which make the entrance into your mouth a fun activity. Doritos were originally produced in 1966, and are currently made by Frito-Lay. Doritos happen to be the Spanish word for the phrase, "little bits of gold" according to Frito-Lay. Doritos can be found all over the world, most prominently in Australia, Germany, and Canada. The flavors do vary from country to country, so I suggest going on a pilgrimage to all these locations and scarfing down all the tastes that Doritos has to offer. Snack well college kids, snack well.
Fruit Roll-Ups
If you want to get away from the more starchy snacks (Oh no! The evil carbs are coming to get me), I suggest picking up some of these fun snacks produced by the General Mills company. These snacks are fruity delights. They are literally rolled up around a layer of cellophane and will provide you with a taste sensation. Fruit Roll-Ups were invented by James F. Kamman, while his team was working on research and development for General Mills. Fruit Roll-Ups are a great example of a food preparation practice called fruit leather, which is just a fancy way of saying dried fruit. According to urban legend, one of the engineers got the idea for fruit roll-ups after pulling the last sheet of toilet paper. The fun thing about Fruit Roll-Ups is that they come in a variety of different forms. There are some varieties in which you can punch out shapes in the roll and others that can give you temporary tattoos. A similar product to Fruit Roll-Ups is Fruit by the Foot, also made by General Mills. Fruit By the Foot is coiled on itself, and is three feet long and has a loop at the end of it for double the taste. Don't think that all these snacks are just bad for you either. One Fruit by the Foot roll contains 25% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C. Take a moment to chow down on some of this stuff.
Chewy Granola Bar
There are ways to enjoy yourself even if you are snacking strong while eating healthy. The intersection of great taste and easy snack is Chewy Granola Bar by Quaker Oats. My personal favorite flavor of Chewy Granola Bars is chocolate chip, but I've also tried peanut butter chocolate chunk, s'mores, honey nut, and apple cinnamon. I have enjoyed all of them immensely and find it extremely difficult to eat just one. The bars contain 120 calories (for the health conscious), but there are 90 calorie alternatives if you just can't stand the extra 30. Quaker Oats was established in Chicago in 1901 when four oat mills decided to conglomerate. Quaker is best known for their cereals and their official logo dude. There is a common misconception that the person depicted in the Quaker Oats logo is William Penn. However, according to the Quaker Oats website, "The "Quaker man" or "Q.O.G." is not an actual person. His image is that of a man dressed in the Quaker garb, chosen because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, [and] integrity." Nice! Way to go Quakers! This snack is delicious and can be eaten no matter how you feel. They only come in packs of 10 though, make sure to pick up enough!
Making sure to eat a healthy, balanced diet at college is critical to your success. When you're at home, you just take for granted the meals that your mom or dad might cook for you, and especially the routinization of lunch in high school. In college it is up to you to make sure you nourish yourself. These are some snack ideas for in between meals. I hope you enjoy them all as much as I do. Be smart. Be aware. Be the solution.
This post was originally written by Tyrone Schiff University of Michigan · Organizational Studies · 25 Sep 2007
