Hey
guys, welcome to Decisions, Decisions’ final
submission. This post will serve as the entry in which I examine the benefits
and disadvantages of preparing your own food as a college student. Additionally,
it will also act as the culmination of my entire project in which I share with
you guys whether I believe eating on campus, off campus, or preparing your own
food is the best choice for the Santa Clara students. I’m not going to lie,
guys. I was a little scared going into this final part of the project because I
am about as far from a proficient cook as humanly possible. However, I do have
quite a bit of experience grilling and because of this I knew I’d be able to handle
it since my project only requires that I prepare burgers and some sort of side
dish.
Before I could begin preparing my
own meal I had to stop at our local Safeway grocery store to procure all the
necessary ingredients in order to make my meal. I picked up a bag of eight Oroweat
whole grain wheat hamburger buns, a pack of Kraft American cheese slices, and
pound of Open Nature beef. In total, the items I bought cost $11.32 (I received
some nice savings because I am a Safeway Club member which is a free program I
would highly recommend all of you consider joining if you ever plan on shopping
at Safeway). However, since I was only using one bun, one slice of cheese, and
part of the meat I bought it is more appropriate to say that the meal cost
roughly $1.66. This price blows away what I paid at the Bronco and at In-N-Out
and clearly shows that it is cheaper to buy and prepare your own food as a
college student (or anyone else, for that matter). I didn’t bother to pick up a
side because I had a few leftover apples and other possible options in my room
that I could enjoy along with my burger. As for my drink, my beverage of choice
with all meals these days is simply water, which thankfully is free.
I was particularly impressed by how
healthy the Open Nature beef I bought from Safeway was. After I had returned
from the grocery store and was preparing to cook my food, I did some research
on the grocery store’s website to learn a little more about what I was about to
put into my body. I was happy to learn that Open Nature beef is raised without antibiotics,
has no added growth hormones, is all vegetarian fed, and all the beef that the
company produces is deemed to be USDA choice meat (Safeway). Additionally, the
research I conducted along with this project indicates that most experts
believe it is far healthier to prepare your own food at home as opposed to buying
any kind of processed food. In the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Report of
Dietary Guidelines, it was revealed that consumers take in up to 400 extra
calories when eating out as opposed to preparing their own food due to highly
refined grains and other factors they cannot control when they don’t make their
own food (Van Horn). This report confirmed my personal suspicions that
self-preparation is the healthiest dining option.
In addition to the responsibly
raised beef that I purchased, I also discovered that my entire meal was
healthier than the ones I received on campus at the Bronco and off campus at In-N-Out.
Since I prepared my own meal, it is difficult for me to report on the exact
health information of the food I made. However, from what I can gather through the
nutrition information located on the labels of the products I purchased, the
health information is as follows: 450 calories, 17.5 grams of total fat, 7.5
grams of saturated fat, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber, 33 grams
of protein, and 635 milligrams of sodium. These statistics indicate that the
Open Nature beef, whole grain wheat buns, and cheddar cheese produced a very
comparable and in many cases healthier meal than what I had access to at the
other locations I dined at. Most notably the meal I prepared myself had
significantly less sodium and fat than the burgers I bought at the Bronco and
In-N-Out. Learning all this information about the food I bought made me feel
much better about the purchase I had just made and got me excited to fire up
the grill and get cooking.
Cooking the burger was perhaps the
most rewarding part of the entire meal. Grilling outside with some of my good
friends was extremely entertaining and led to one of the most enjoyable meals
I’ve had all year. Cooking the meal didn’t end up being nearly as bad as I
imagined it would be either. The only aspect of preparing my own food that I
wasn’t a big fan of was how time consuming and inconvenient it was. Before I
could enjoy my meal I had to take time to go to Safeway to buy the ingredients,
prep the grill, and then cook the food. Additionally, I also had to spend more
time on top of that eating the actual meal itself and cleaning up afterwards.
Altogether, this meal required a couple hours of work and a lot more effort
than simply walking into Benson and ordering food or driving to In-N-Out to get
a burger.
Looking back on this project I’m
amazed by how much I’ve learned about the different dining options available to
college students attending Santa Clara University. My findings have clearly
shown that while preparing your own food is by far the cheapest and healthiest
option, eating in Benson or off campus are far more convenient for students
with busier lives and restraining class schedules. This project has taught me
that there isn’t a distinct best dining option available for college students.
All of the locations I dined at and received my food from had their own
advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately I have learned that instead of
worrying about where we eat, it is far more important to think about what we
eat. As this blog draws to a close, I urge you all to take the time to learn
about what you’re putting into your bodies and always strive to find the best
options available to you wherever you choose to eat.
Works Cited
"Safeway
- Open Nature - Meats." Safeway - Open Nature - Meats. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 May
2013.
Van
Horn, Linda V. "Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the
Dietary
Guidelines for Americans, 2010." United
States Department of Agriculture. USDA, May 2010. Web. 31 May 2013.
Andrew, cooking your own food is certainly a rewarding experience. You mentioned that you had to spend a couple hours but I'm sure it was worth it in the end. It also seems like a healthier option, as you stated the nutrition facts of the burger you made and compared it to burgers from other places. Also, I like how you draw your post to a close by stating the importance of what we put into our bodies as opposed to where we eat them. The quality of the food we eat, however, certainly is dependent on where we purchased it from. -Vik
ReplyDeleteAndrew
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty when addressing your ability to cook, which added to your pathos since I'm sure it is something many college students (including myself) can relate to. I thought it was really great that you decided to do extended research on the Open Nature beef, and how you built credibility for them through this blog post. Your concluding paragraph wraps up your project nicely, catering to different view points since each food option does in fact have its pros and cons. Finally, I like that you encourage the audience to become more knowledgeable food consumers, which is really what I think the whole point of the "Rhetoric and Recipes" class is.