Grade "A" Snacks

My glamorous life as a full-time student is stunningly predictable. If I’m not studying, then I’m probably worrying about where I’m going to be getting my next meal. But during exam season, the last thing on my mind is what to cook for dinner or how I can track down something healthy to eat. Suffice it to say, when I’m hungry and crunched for time, all I want to do is to reach for a greasy burger or a tub of ice-cream. Recently, during another one of my All-You-Can-Cram & Eat sessions, I resolved to give this whole “snacking healthy” thing a try and compiled a list of my favorite snacks that are fast, simple, affordable, and of course, healthy and yummy too. Whether you’re a student, working professional, jet-setter, rockstar, or simply a hungry, hungry, hippo, hopefully these ideas will help get through the day and leave you feeling healthy and happy!

• Low-fat yogurt with cut fruit (my personal favorite are banana slices or cantaloupe) or with granola sprinkled on top.

• Whole wheat/grain bread with cheese sandwich. Be sure to look for the whole wheat or whole grain label on the package.

• Rice cakes topped with natural peanut butter and banana slices.

• Edamame steamed with a bit of salt and lemon juice.

• Chocolate dipped strawberries. I have a terrible sweet tooth, so this is one of my personal favorites. But don’t forget, everything in moderation!

• Fruit salad. The key to this snack is to make it in bulk and have it already prepared so that it’s waiting in the fridge when you want it. Drizzle a bit of lemon juice as a natural preservative and it will stay fresh for longer.

• Lettuce wraps with ham, turkey, or chicken breast slices, tomato slices, and string cheese. Or cut the string cheese in half, so that way you can enjoy another wrap!

• Low-sugar cereal with low-fat milk. This is absolutely one snack that I can’t live without. Sometimes cereal can be the best meal of the day!

So the next time, you’re low on time and on brain fuel, go for a healthy snack instead of a greasy bag of chips, and you’ll be well on your way to earning that “A”. Go get ‘em, Tiger!

Digesting Digestion

For me (and perhaps many of us out there), learning about nutrition is fun and exciting, but even the smallest attempt to learn about digestion leaves my stomach tossing and turning. But to really understand nutrition means knowing about all the microscopic events that occur. I’m well into my first year of medical school, well into memorizing pages after pages of textbooks, and well into many late nights of deciphering the different paths that fats, proteins, and carbohydrates take in the human body. And with all these facts, I’m left feeling a little disoriented, unsatisfied, and with my stomach in knots.

I’m a visual learner, avoid details like the plague, and crave to see the “big picture”. So for all of you visual learners, I’d like to bring the big picture to motion picture, and suggest my personal remedy for making digestion fun and exciting again: the digestion episode of the Magic School Bus! I remember watching this in elementary school and thinking it was coolest thing ever (and I haven’t changed much). From time to time, I like to revisit this video just to feel good about how much I know … and remind myself of how much I don’t know.

Below is the For Lunch episode of the Magic School Bus. (Leave it to YouTube to have everything!) Parts 2 and 3 of the episode will automatically upload from the playlist. Enjoy!