State Press Magazine reporters Cameron Rubner and Nick Minker talk about student diets on- and off-campus, and the difficulties of eating healthy. This episode was produced alongside the Consumption Issue of State Press Magazine.
State Press podcast transcripts are produced by a third-party transcription service and may contain errors. The official record for State Press podcasts is the audio.
Cameron Rubner
All right. We're recording. All right. We're in the studio. We are breaking, we are busting open The tate Press podcast desk, or magazine podcast desk. This is the first one and my name is Cameron Rubner. And with me is-
Nick Minker
I'm Nick Minker.
Cameron Rubner
Junk Drawer Podcast, Junk Drawer podcast. Probably thinking, who are we?
What is the junk door podcast? I'm just a student, a journalism student and nothing too crazy. And with me?
Nick Minker
A goofball, I don't know. I don't want to disclose my major, I guess.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah. Not everyone's proud of that, but that's fine. Change them 30 times. So today's topic of interest, student dieting, student dieting, right?
Wait, let's maybe describe the show more. So what is, what is the junk drawer? What is the junk drawer podcast? I guess you could describe it as an amalgamation where college student meets pop culture meets obscenity, obscenities and education. Right. What would you call it?
Nick Minker
I guess I'm just ready to go into today's topic.
Cameron Rubner
Let's just go into- let's just jump right in. I'm feeling good.
Nick Minker
So have you eaten anything today?
Cameron Rubner
So, um, yeah. Yeah, I ate today. Let's go over.
In the morning I skipped breakfast cause I had to be up early, so I didn't really have time for it.
And then on my lunch break, I grabbed Chick-fil-A, Chick-Fil-A sandwich, right? It's on campus. That's what the campus provides me with.
Nick Minker
What's your go-to sauce?
Cameron Rubner
Oh, Buffalo and ranch. People around people are listening to this on the edge of their seats. The same day.
Nick Minker
You're saying Buffalo ranch, Buffalo.
Cameron Rubner
It's you know, it's not too daring. It's just very standard. Well, I mixed the two. I'm kind of a chemist now. Cooking up, cooking up new delicious ways of eating Chick-fil-A. Um, so what about you? What did you, what did you eat today, Nick?
Nick Minker
I didn't eat a lot. I pretty much had nothing. Uh, I had, before I left the, my house, I just grabbed a nice little, like a Kirkland protein bar
Cameron Rubner
And you have a Costco card?
Nick Minker
No roommate does. I wish. I don't. We all, you know, if I was a gold member, my life would be changed, but for now I'm just a leech.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah, of course.
Nick Minker
Um, yeah, so I want to sound like, um, Quite the contrarian for not for TA discussing the college diet and what, what should be done when I do not practice.
Cameron Rubner
Well, one thing about this show is that we talk about stuff that we don't actually do, like eating healthy, right?
Uh, no, I'm just kidding. We're definitely experts. And we, we are proven to know what we're talking about. So we have to make sure we know that because, The State Press will listen to this and if they don't like it, there will be no episode two. Okay. So what. So, so you didn't eat anything today?
Nick Minker
Yeah, literally nothing.
I woke up at nine, watched an episode of Euphoria.
Cameron Rubner
Oh, okay.
Nick Minker
And then, you know what he had for breakfast? Keep going, Molly. Um, then I left the house. Paul's ACE hardware.
Cameron Rubner
How is Paul?
Nick Minker
Uh, Paul's doing good. I walked in, said hi to Paul. Saw his business card. Oh, is there?
Cameron Rubner
What I like about Paul's, is that it's still the local, you know, they put Paul in front of it to make you realize it's actually not a multimillion dollar corporation.
Nick Minker
Nope. Now it's a very niche. Very, uh, great. They're the helpful hardware folks.
Cameron Rubner
What's their- the ACEs with the helpful hardware, but we don't get into rumors on this show.
Nick Minker
We all know that we don't know that. And then yeah, I went to, I went downtown for classes and things, and just never got an opportunity to, you know, anything.
Cameron Rubner
Would you consider your diet healthy overall now? Like after 2020? No, 2020. So the pandemic ruined your eating habits?
Nick Minker
Yeah. Pandemic ruined me. You had good eating habits before the pandemic. More or less. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I would at least eat like two meals a day. That being something healthy, following the food pyramid, the Venn diagram,
Cameron Rubner
Pyramid scheme, as they call it, you know, the healthy people are at the top and everyone else at the bottom.
So let's get into some statistics. Right. How, how did ASU students eat? How do you even quantify that? But I did some hard digging research because we do that here at the state press. And I had to really break some bones to get this information. But if you go on the, uh, ASU website, um, there's not a whole lot of nutrition information available there about this school, but this is what I was able to pull directly from the website.
And I want you to listen. To tell me, obviously not right now. If you think these, uh, these health statistics actually portray a healthy student body, okay, let's get into it. This is the first one, 22% of ASU students reported eating a variety of nutritious foods from each group daily. That includes whole grains, calcium, rich protein foods, fruits and vegetables.
Let me say that again. 22% of ASU students, um, reported eating a variety of nutritious foods. This study is from 2018, so it could be a little out of date, but ASU posted this on their website. So whose fault is that?
Nick Minker
It's fairly recent.
Cameron Rubner
22% like- did they think that statistic was impressive. Yeah, like we need to post this.
This is great. This is great. Um, the next 1, 25 0.3% of ASU students usually consume three or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily. Twenty-five percent. That means if we do some really good math here around 75% don't usually consume three or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily. And I feel like maybe the 25% that said they did even lied about it because who is keeping track of that?
Do you keep track of how much fruit, how many fruits and vegetables do you eat?
Nick Minker
No, not at all. I mean, I had a banana bread like last night, so this potassium and. Yeah.
Cameron Rubner
Do you carb, do you like carbo loading or carbs?
Nick Minker
I find myself eating carbs the most frequently cause it's just so accessible. You could say it falls into the grains category, right?
Cameron Rubner
A lot of greens, a lot of grains, which, are, uh, nutritious. Is that true? Okay., and then this is the last statistic. This is my favorite. 3.9% of ASU students usually consume five or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily. So some heavy hitters there. That was three per nights, those 3.9% really doing a lot of work.
And this was the last statistic they offered on their website. 54 percent of ASU students are in a healthy weight range based on calculations of their body mass index. Again, this is from a few years ago, 2019, the sources, the American college health association. So what, what do we think ASU.
Nick Minker
With the pandemic, everything has gotten so much better.
Cameron Rubner
I think, you know, people have had more time to eat well now.
Nick Minker
Pandemic, you know, everyone wants the most expensive produce and cooking and stuff.
Cameron Rubner
The new fad cooking at home. All I see all I see on Tik Tok And Instagram reels are people cooking at home, but the only Tik Toks I get are people making incredibly unhealthy food, like pasta with 5 million different cheese sauces, or like, like a fried piece of lard,
Nick Minker
Like a waffle with six ounces of Nutella on it.
Cameron Rubner
And they're like, it's a morning snack in the morning.
Nick Minker
With the candy corn on it too.
Cameron Rubner
But that's just seasoning now.
But I do think that. That the social media recipes that I get are absolutely awful. And I definitely think that the algorithm is just showing me a mirror like, yeah, bro, you eat like garbage. Obviously we're going to show you more garbage recipes. It's what you
Nick Minker
Feed the fire, feed the fire.
Cameron Rubner
But. Maybe, I just want the algorithm to tell me to eat healthy. Maybe that's what people need. They just need someone to point them in the right direction. A little bit. When you came to ASU, did you feel like you had a lot of resources for healthy eating or did anyone tell you about healthy eating?
Nick Minker
No. Did you have to take the ASU class? I don't know, they went into like mental health and eating healthy and not like the resources that like, I mean, I was mostly eating from the dining halls and like the only good thing there was pizza. So that was just the standard dining hall. I don't know, Barrett.
I've gone to Barrett a couple of times. Good stuff there. Yeah.
Cameron Rubner
I'm also a dining hall veteran myself. This is my last semester here, but my first year I ate at the dining hall. You know, I spoke to a couple of students. Um, you know, to get their feeling, about dining halls at ASU and a student told me that they, you know, they, there's a real lack of protein and veggie options specifically for breakfast, but a lot of carb heavy options.
So, you know, you've got your muffins, you've got your waffle, all that good stuff. Where can I get like, uh, like some frittata, you know, um, frittata.
Nick Minker
They have that panini press there that was surprising, um, which is great, which is literally just a cold sandwich. That's been pressed together, got some grill marks on it. That was, that was a good method.
Cameron Rubner
So let's we talk about, let's, let's talk about, um, you know, roadblocks to eating healthy. I think there's, you know, a lot of them in college life, what are some of those. You know, what would you say stops you from grabbing some salad and go?
Nick Minker
Mm. Uh, I would say that, I mean, costs and time are like the two biggest things. Cause I mean, I don't know. It's so much easier just to go to In and Out or something.
Cameron Rubner
Well, Salad and Go is different because like it's cheap and it's like, uh, pretty healthy, but I hope.
Nick Minker
I don’t know. Yeah. They have microplastics in the salad and go something about that. Something that something's in the $1 drinks.
Cameron Rubner
Oh yeah. Those lemonades. Why are they $1, those profit margins, abysmal, whatever they're doing everybody a favor.
Nick Minker
Not an ad read.
Cameron Rubner
Not an ad read. This is not. We don't totally get a check from salad and go. This is not an ad read. I would say. Yeah, I would agree with you. I think time and money.
Are the two biggest ones for me, but also, you know, I don't have a car, so I can't really grocery shop without like- having to buy an Uber to bring home all my groceries. And I just, I get so, so lazy. I used to be really good at saving my money and eating in, not even eating healthy, but eating in.
And I feel like that's definitely gone past the wayside and I've, and I I'm definitely eating worse than that because of. Spending on a budget, right? Like I'm literally like on lunch break, looking for the cheapest option all the time. And I don't always get the cheapest.
Nick Minker
The cheapest option is a cigarette, ramen and coffee, a cup of coffee.
Cameron Rubner
Not that we advocate smoking or drug use like caffeine, but there are drug addicts among us. Caffeine heads. That's what I call them. You do you drink coffee? No, no, I never got
Nick Minker
Cigarettes?
Cameron Rubner
No, I never got into it. I never got into drinking coffee. I didn't really find the need for it. Um, but let's, let's, let's switch the discussion back to meal plans for a second because the ASU meal plan along with most meal plans in the country are very, very expensive.
The average cost of a meal plan costs about $4,500 per year. Or $18.75 per day for a three meal plan that covers the eight months or so of a typical academic year. Many colleges require students to have a meal plan if they plan to live on campus. And that's why a lot, and that's a lot to pay for when your financial resources are limited.
So I went and took the liberty of perusing the nine different meal plans that they offer. You know, I just kind of wanted to share my findings with you. Because some of these range from pointless [00:12:00] to just, uh money-grabbing, which is what ASU definitely does not do, love the school and my education, the real plans range from a hundred dollars, which is quite cheap, right. a $2,900. Uh, 29 0 5 and, uh, you know, what do you, what, what would you think that you would get with a a hundred dollar meal plan? Like what do you, what do you think?
Nick Minker
Is that I would say one meal swipe a day. Maybe, I don't really know how much it is.
Cameron Rubner
That would be great. It's actually just 10 meals a semester.
Nick Minker
Oh God. I forgot about those plans.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah. It's 10 meals, a whole three months for a hundred dollars. So, you know, you can pay $10 per meal. Well, they- they say use at our all you care to eat dining halls, right? So not all you can eat all you care to eat because languages, you can't take any of the food out either.
Nick Minker
No, you can't be like, no, they definitely, you can't just go with it unless it's like an ice cream cone. Like you can't take it out, it's serious. I guess I would try and bring food. Like, I'd be like, okay, I'm going to bring like half a pizza back.
Cameron Rubner
Exactly. I'm hungry.
Nick Minker
They wouldn't, they wouldn't let me.
Cameron Rubner
So that comes with 10 meals a semester.
You know, you work your way up. The, you know, the most expensive 1 $2900 actually has unlimited meals and 275 M and G dollars. Uh, there's one that's that's really good. Uh, the spring 2022, all maroon and gold, that cost $1,185. And, uh, could you guess what you get with that, uh, unlimited meal swipes? Uh, $1,185 in maroon and gold dollars.
So they take your real currency and they said, oh, we, oh my, yeah. You can either spend them at a Chick-fil-A, which is priced, more than regular, you know.
Nick Minker
Domino’s.
Cameron Rubner
Jimmy John’s
Nick Minker
Doner Dudes I spent a grip of M and G there.
Cameron Rubner
That's true. Qdoba. Knock off. Chipotle, I think.
Nick Minker
Pei Wei.
Cameron Rubner
Oh yeah. All that good stuff. All those really healthy options. And, uh, I think that's just a steal, a great deal. Don't you don't get me wrong. I don't like real money that I can spend anywhere. I want like- to spend my money on ASU campus where, you know, if I'm a parent, I know they’re giving their money to, you know, a hardworking school like ASU. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So maybe I understand that one. Maybe I understand that.
Nick Minker
That is literally, there's no meal swipes. That is just, that's all maroon and gold.
Cameron Rubner
So that one, there's no meal swipes, but, um, you know, the gold plan includes $1,575.
There's seven meals per week. And, um, you also get $300 M and G seven meals per week. You went to the dining hall, right. And you tried to get in, what was the cover? What was the cover when you tried to get it?
Nick Minker
Ah, if I can, um, oh man. Um, It was like $12, I think, 10 to $12, 10 to $12. and that was a Pitchfork. You could probably go to Golden Corral and get a better deal.
Cameron Rubner
I heard there was a tool at the golden corral recently over a shortage of steak. Did you see that at the Golden Corral? Because I would only do someone over like some chicken wings, chicken steak, like, okay. I'll try to think of like, Food.
Nick Minker
Like they just ran out. There's like one left and I got a one V one, someone for it. I'm thinking, what could it even be like a country fried steak, maybe some sausage gravy. See, I'm not eating good, but that's what I like to eat. Oh yeah.
I would really have to say a Salad and Go salad. Yeah. If it's the last one I'm eating that. That's true.
Cameron Rubner
I like the Buffalo chicken or no, the jalapeno chicken. No plugs. Just saying what I'm saying.
Um, well, in case you're wondering, you know, why they don't, if you know- why don't they have an expert on the show, why don't they have something that we can actually, uh, hear, speak real facts?
Well, we tried to get into contact with ASU health professors. We did not succeed. We also tried to contact the third-party nutritionist that ASU recommends on their website. And they did not get back to me. And there was also no in-house nutritionist at ASU, is what I learned through trying to find someone they left from what I heard at the sun devil fitness center.
They left like six months ago and no one's seen them. So there's no nutritionist at ASU and. Would you, you know, would you see a nutritionist if you were actually having health problems or like nutrition problems, like dieting, like you really couldn't figure out oh, like a salad, like if I was having health problems.
Nick Minker
Yeah. I'd probably, yeah, but like, Just a recreational diet or even just like being in staying like the peak healthiest I could like, um, if it needs to be specialized, I, I mean, I feel like anything can be solved with just a couple of cookie clacks on the keyboard and to Google. Yeah. What am I doing wrong?
Cameron Rubner
And that's how we do all the research for this show. And we take everything off of info wars and daily wire. So we're all set. We're all good to go. Now I'm just looking for the fans at home. Um, but let's let's okay. So what are the, what are the negative effects for college students? Poor eating affects. I think we know that.
Basic ones, but it can also affect your, your happiness, your energy, and just your, your day to day. I honestly feel like a, like a, with like a Katy Perry once said you ever feel like a plastic bag floating through. And that's when I wake up in the morning. Cause I'm so, I'm just so hungry really. And, uh, almost disoriented.
Nick Minker
Yeah. I have to remind myself of my name and like where I'm at. First thing I do is put my phone right in my face, get the blue light to wake me up.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah. Yeah.
Um, yeah, starting the day off, what you should do and everyone should, although it's disputed, I think eating a good breakfast honestly, is the best way to kick.
Nick Minker
Start your day, eating a good breakfast. It's true. But what you know, or even if it doesn't have to be anything too Hardy, just as long as you have like a couple of calories on your. It gives you the opportunity to start the day off, right. And strong and give you the energy to kind of just boost you and your day.
Cameron Rubner
I think that, I think that's true. I think we should all be, I'm trying to focus on a healthy breakfast, but I have some, I actually have some tips here from ASU, straight from their website. And I kind of wanted to share them with you and see if maybe, you know, these could work and maybe, you know, let me know what you think about these tips.
So these are just off the cuff, bullet point tips, schedule and plan, regular meals and snacks. Yeah, but my [00:19:00] schedule is changing all the time. You know, busy college student, you know, one day, this is going on one day. Is that, so it makes sense. Uh, scheduling meals.
Nick Minker
Scheduling, I mean, if you can't do that, then bring snacks with you.
If you can just hit up, like, the Frye’s get a big bag. Some kind of, definitely not the P.O.D.
Cameron Rubner
Do not go to the P.O.D. Unless you got it like that, unless you got it like that.
Nick Minker
Yeah. There's been a couple of times where I was just about to faint and I'm so hungry and I had to get something to pick myself up.
Cameron Rubner
But $6 powerade?
Nick Minker
Yeah. It was really good. I was there yesterday. They were charging almost $6 for a box of cereal, like sugary cereal. That's just go to the store. And it's $2.
Cameron Rubner
ASU actually had a mini Walmart on campus and that had actual, you know, not a full, it wasn't a full grocery store, but I had some pretty good provisions on demand.
Nick Minker
They were actually fairly- had almost everything a [00:20:00] college student would need. Actually everything. Yeah. You know, from led light strips to food, to medicine, to cold medicine, to even plan B. Yeah. It had and you know- I miss it.
Cameron Rubner
When did that get taken away?
Nick Minker
I think that would be years ago, amidst the Pandemic or like 20, 21.
Cameron Rubner
No, one's looking. When no one's looking, they took away what was fully ours. Well, you know, maybe we need to do a little investigating on the pod back to these, uh, incorporate your daily eating while. Oh, incorporate these into your daily eating. Let's try this water, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, rich beans and nuts.
Yeah. I mean, that's, this is, is it common knowledge, right?
Nick Minker
Like, yeah, you start your, your own little education path, you know, in grade school you learn about the food pyramid, eating. No, you got to look at the, all the signs on the walls that tell you to eat healthy. Yeah. [00:21:00] It's really funny. Like your bones will be fragile or something?
Cameron Rubner
Yeah. Yeah. There's a poster of Dwight Howard with a milk mustache and it's 10:30 and I'm getting served like a- like a slice of pizza with some like fruit cup that's concentrated or filled with sugar and a nice cup of milk toast. Big heaping serving of just milk,
Nick Minker
Just milk straight.
Cameron Rubner
And you look at the posters and all the milk propaganda you would see in elementary school is ridiculous.
Nick Minker
It's ridiculous. Um, there's definitely better ways to get calcium.
Cameron Rubner
I'm lactose-intolerant. I think the majority of people are actually.
Nick Minker
Like, I, maybe it was just because my body was so immune to it. Cause I drank a lot of milk when I was younger. Like just, just like cereal and everything else. But as soon as I got into high school, it really started hurting my stomach.
Cameron Rubner
Like, I don't know, like it happens overnight. I swear that I had one bowl of cereal before work and my, the rest of my life was changed. Like I never felt the same. Yeah, I felt the same.
Nick Minker
I didn't believe in magic until my body turned into a snake. Like literally they switched up so quick I could not even account for that.
Cameron Rubner
So next tip, take a, take a daily multivimen. Do you take multivitamins?
Nick Minker
I was at one point you run out and then you kind of forget you have them or you have to take them.
Cameron Rubner
And what do they do again? What are multivitamins? They have so many vitamins in them.
Nick Minker
It's just kind of like your daily dose of like every kind of required vitamin that you would need.
It helps boost your immune system and kickstart your metabolic rate and a bunch of other things.
Cameron Rubner
Okay. Okay. This one, uh, pretty simple. Try some healthy snacks and recipes. Why didn't I think of that? Oh no, they got me, they got me. Okay. Notice the size and number of servings and the nutrient content of your food so that, you know, if you've achieved your nutrient goals.
Okay. So calorie, you know.
Nick Minker
Calorie, counting.
Cameron Rubner
Calorie, counting. What do you think about that? I don't really count my calories.
Nick Minker
Yeah. I, you know, when I'm bored, I'm looking at the side of the box. I'm like, oh wow. A serving is-
Cameron Rubner
When the juice is so good you have to read it.
Nick Minker
Reading it. Yeah. Yeah, I'll read the side and it's like, oh, a serving is, you know, three ounces and it's like, in parentheses like three handfuls.
Cameron Rubner
Take note of your sensations of hunger and appetite, and whether they vary in response to emotions, schedule, proximity to food and external influences on your sensations of hunger and appetite.
Nick Minker
That's like boredom, eating, eating out of eating. Exactly. When you're sad.
Cameron Rubner
That's true. And I do that a lot. I eat when I’m bored all the time. It's true. Cause it's just like I could add maybe like, it's like when you're not doing anything, I get so strange. I think it's because you're not thinking about, like- oh, I want to eat something or I don't know. I don't know what it is. Yeah.
Nick Minker
Proximity to food. If something's there, I'll eat it. Like, I dunno, a hundred percent. It's a lot of- what's that called? Self-determination to just keep busy.
Cameron Rubner
Boredom eating is so real. That's probably the most real thing that, that, like now that I was like, I was just thinking like, what does that mean?
Nick Minker
Like eating to your sensations.
Cameron Rubner: But now that makes a hundred percent more sense. Are you the kind of guy that likes to eat their sadness away or use eating as a crutch?
Nick Minker
I don't know if I've done enough self, like introspective thought to like myself. Um, I, I just noticed, I mean, maybe in a way, I just know that like, if I'm bored, I'm like, damn, I gotta find someone in the pantry and then like do the whole routine pantry fridge. Something's got to be in there.
Cameron Rubner
Right. Think of food as one part of life, not as the center of it. Don't over plan or over analyze your meals and then a nice little bone Appetit there after the semi-colon, so yeah. Think of food as part of that. Not the center of it. I mean, I'm a guy that loves food. I eat food every day and that's a hot take, but that's a hot take, but I really do enjoy consuming my food.
I think there's just roadblocks of hay in front of me and time constraints, money. If the State Press was paying me, you know, we'd be at Ruth Chris recording this, but obviously there's no money in the budget for that. Um, I, uh, I be eating for the flavor, you know? Oh, I eat for the flavor and that's my thing with, and that's, I don't know.
I'm sure there are healthy tasty foods. We have Elizabeth with us. Um, Elizabeth is vegan, um, right? Or you were a vegan. She was. And so maybe let's turn on your mic. We're going to turn out. We're going to queue in Elizabeth, just for this one section, because this is a great viewpoint here.
All right. So we queued in Elizabeth, and this is Elizabeth Andazolla, another ASU student who has been so kind to help us operate the board. And you were vegan at one point. Is that true?
Elizabeth Andazola
Probably. Yeah. For about a year. Probably from like 2019 to mid 2020.
Cameron Rubner
Was that, based on like your feelings about animal rights or just your diet or more you think?
Elizabeth Andazola
Well, I guess at first it was like, it was just a part of like a, you know, wanting to try something new and being in college and being immersed into. Just seeing a bunch of frankly, just seeing a bunch of people who like, have there, have their stuff together, you know? You get really motivated by seeing a bunch of people who like to go to the gym at the gym.
Yeah. That's how, yeah. That's how it started. It started out with like a bunch of walking and then gradually like running my mile. And then I was like, you know what? I need to take it up a notch and then I start eating. Keep the game. Yeah, they say that I'm going to say something weird, but I say, I heard that they say that Abs started in the kitchen.
Cameron Rubner
I believe it. You can't work out and go home and eat the Ritos. Right. All those saturated fats. Gross. You know, it'll, it'll kill you. You know, they say your net worth- your net worth is your network. So if you are at the gym and you see people eating healthy-
Nick Minker
If you see someone eating a bag of Doritos, smack it out of their hands.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah. That's true. But like, if you're home eating a bag of Doritos, you might be like, oh, I'm I might get a bag of Doritos. Yeah.
Nick Minker
I'm going to share with you, bro. Like that's too many calories for you to intake. I'll do half.
Cameron Rubner
Exactly. Oh, caring, split up. Yeah, and really get, get rid of all those chips, all that nice crisp chip.
Nick Minker
We could, we could do like a joint workout.
Cameron Rubner
Like a joint slay. Let's do it, a joint work out, yes. You know, I mean, there are so many excuses I can make as to why I don't have a healthy diet and why I don't work out and don't motivate myself, but I'm not going to dive into that.
Nick Minker
Put another hour on the, on the clock.
Cameron Rubner
So, another question I had for you, Elizabeth.
So my biggest thing. Like we, like Nick said, eating for taste. I feel like when you're eating for taste and you cut out meat and all those options, it becomes harder. How do you get around that?
Elizabeth Andazola
Well, when I was, I guess when I was vegan, I would, I would go to the internet. There are a lot of people out there, I think. Well, I think now, too, just because of how much, like vegetarianism and veganism have gotten popular, it's relatively easy to find like a lot of recipes and a lot of websites. And I also think that. With like Instagram, you know, you can quickly search up a pretty good meal and yeah, just kind of go from there.
Like I had this system where I would get one ingredient and then build the recipe around it. So like, let's just say I got broccoli, which I did the other day. If you recall, I made some nice quinoa casserole with it.
Cameron Rubner
That was actually really good. Cheddar broccoli, casserole.
Nick Minker
You were hating on the vegan diet!
Cameron Rubner
No, I would never hate on veganism. I think it's brave. Like if you can do it, do it. I can't do it because it is brave. It's not easy. Oh yeah, no, no. That's not easy. Right. Um, It is hard and you don't have to go vegan or vegetarian.
Nick Minker
You can totally make like a bunch of like very flavorful vegan dishes. Definitely. I would say, uh, my only complaint is in the cheese or dairy department. Like they got to work on it.
Cameron Rubner
You're not rocking with Oatley or soy milk?
Nick Minker
When it comes down to cheese. Oh, just the science isn't there yet. Yeah, it doesn't melt properly. It doesn't taste right.
Cameron Rubner
Oh, okay. Our friends at KFC just released some, some vegan chicken nuggets. Did you see? Did you see those?
Nick Minker
I did. I didn't try them. I, uh, I tried the taco bell wings. Does that mean taco bell wings are vegan?
Cameron Rubner: Definitely not real meat, right? So it's gotta be impossible. Something impossible. Wings. Me and Nick both ate the taco bell wings. If you're wondering about our personal lives. What are your thoughts on them?
Nick Minker
You know what?
Cameron Rubner: Let's get real for a second. Enough of all this crap we've been talking about. We need to get something serious. And we're talking about taco bell wings now, which is a serious topic.
Nick Minker
I think, you know, the crunch was there. Yeah, I liked the seasoning. Might've been a little over cooked, but the crunch was there.
Cameron Rubner
It varies right? From place to place. Definitely over cooked, but they- they're small. Right? So they got the runt of the wings and it makes you think like, is that natural? Are they just going to. Just a little food for thought. The sauce that came with it was literally like spicy ranch.
Nick Minker
No, it wasn't even spicy, dude. If it tasted like cheesy ranch, tartar sauce and ranch mixed together, or yeah. Tartar sauce and ranch mix. It was not awesome.
Cameron Rubner
No, not at all.
Nick Minker
I would say like, talk about wing was just like an unseasoned wing. I dunno. I didn't. It or it was, it was seasoned. It was, it didn't have any sauce.
No sauce wing, no sauce wing over there.
Cameron Rubner
There's- there's no sauce on them. That's right, there.
Nick Minker
Yeah. It's like a dry rub. Dry rub, dry rub. That's just seasoning, it was just seasoning.
Cameron Rubner
That's what a dry rub is though.
Nick Minker
I know, but you know, it didn’t it didn’t, it just tastes like, you know, salt and pepper and paprika maybe like, um, well.
Cameron Rubner
Well, I, I understand what you're saying and the taco bell winnings are very controversial. Um, you know, I wasn't about it at first, but Nick actually turned me on to the idea, like I said, your network is your net worth. And I went and got the taco bell wings. Now maybe if Nick posted a picture of him eating a salad. Maybe drinking a smoothie.
I would have done the same, but, uh, I guess I'm, you know, monkey see monkey do, right? Yeah. So, uh, let's get back to the, uh, to the ASU talking. I don't want to bad mouth ASU and say that they're not doing anything, uh, you know, for their students, uh, nutrition wise, but there was a 2017 study that was taken based off ASU students.
It was about food insecurity. At ASU and 32%, uh, of students surveyed, reported inconsistent food access in the past month, 37% and reported inconsistent food access. In the past three months, uh, food insecure freshmen had higher odds of depression compared to food. Food insecure freshmen had significantly lower odds of eating breakfast, consuming home cooked meals, perceiving their off-campus eating habits to be healthy and receiving food, um, from parents. So in response to this, ASU saw this, they were like not a great look, and, um- actually a bunch of students saw that and said, this is not a great look. And they actually started the, uh, the Pitchfork Pantry. Have you ever heard of the Pitchfork Pantry?
Nick Minker
I have not.
Cameron Rubner
And I hadn't. I know I'm a fourth year student in my last semester, supposedly, and this started a whole year before I came to the school and I did not hear about it once and I never, uh, I've never seen it now. Is that my fault? Yeah, probably. Why not?
Nick Minker
But, um, is it advertised as well as it advertises as well-
Cameron Rubner
As well as it should be? I don't believe so. Pitchfork Pantry has pop-up events every other Saturday on the Tempe campus to provide non-perishables and sometimes perishable foods to students, um, you know, due to our relationship with local food banks. So that's great local food banks stepping in and helping us out.
This update, this website is not incredibly updated. And it says they will expand to other campuses in the spring of 2021. You can, uh, follow the Pitchfork pantry @ASUPitchforkpantry. I tried to, uh, contact a rep, someone that works there so they could come on the show. But unfortunately it was too late notice.
That's my fault. No response. And that's what that is. But definitely check that out. The Pitchfork Pantry, if you are someone that is maybe, you know, either food insecure or just don't really know what healthy shopping is. I know that was a huge problem for me when I was. Went to go grocery shopping for the first time and still today, whenever I go grocery shopping, I'm thinking chicken-
Nick Minker
A vegetable you're like, like lettuce that just sits in rots. Baby carrots just sit in a draw.
Cameron Rubner
The produce I buy all goes to waste. Um, if I buy any and it's not guaranteed that I'm going to buy any, um, when I go shopping.
Nick Minker
Uh, yeah, fresh produce. Um, I found that produce so you can freeze, like anytime I remember it, like peas, carrots, I mean, things that are canned, like also works pretty well in a pinch fresh produce is just a nightmare.
Cameron Rubner
I always forget, like, especially with salad, any kind of green leafy green, it's just like, you have to eat it in a very short period of time. And then like the options of being like, oh, I could, you know, Eat something way better than a salad, or when I think of healthy eating, the only thing that comes to my head is literally a picture of salad.
And that's not even the case at all. It's- there's so much. Salad can be unhealthy, dump that thing in ranch dressing and whatever, just lather it up.
Nick Minker
Shoot, you know a good sauce is like little lemon juice, some olive oil, some cracked pepper. A little bit of salt.
Cameron Rubner
But yeah, I mean, I think after this, I think I'll definitely start, you know, trying to incorporate, you know, maybe whole grains, calcium, rich protein, rich foods.
I mean, we should be taking our own advice, I think. Right? I've been trying, you know, I've been active recently and I think, you know, the pandemic is waning down. People are coming out of a slump, a long slump, you know, ASU has really taken the focus off. Making sure their students eat well. They've obviously gotten rid of their nutritionist and whatnot, so they don't really care.
I think now people coming to school and people getting busy more and more, like my day is completely packed and I've rarely have time to sneak in food. And when I do sneak in food, it's junk food. So I think I'm definitely going to have to start taking my own advice and eating breakfast. I think eating breakfast is the most important tip there.
Nick Minker
Breakfast and dinner. You can skip lunch.
Cameron Rubner
Break the fast. You don't have to have something sugary and sweet and garbage for you. Just, just break the fast.
Nick Minker
Also from Clark EDU, Clark university-
Cameron Rubner
This is Clark.
Nick Minker
Gave 10 healthy eating tips, and one of them was- maybe some of our drinking devils won't like this. Limit your alcohol intake, limit your alcohol intake, a light beer, a glass of wine, or an ounce of liquor each has about 100 calories.
So if you are a, a heavy drinker, um, There's a thing called a beer belly and you might be accumulating that. I have myself. I'm not a heavy drinker, but-
Cameron Rubner
And we want to get real on this show. Right? We're just like you guys were students. I'm 21. I enjoy an alcoholic beverage
We drink of age. We drink of age, Elizabeth in the studio with us is 22. So a year and a year in the clear.
Nick Minker
Oh my gosh. I'm 22 too. I forgot.
Cameron Rubner
Nick is 22 and he forgot my bad. That's awesome. Um, but yeah. What does it say limit your alcohol intake? Is that it? Uh, yeah, I mean, simple.
Nick Minker
I mean, obviously a seltzers a little bit, like. It's just water and alcohol, but it still has some calories in it.
Cameron Rubner
A hundred calories, less carbs and calories then say like a Natty light or something. Natty light has 170 calories. I'm pretty sure. And a white claw you know, a hundred. So 70, 70 calorie difference. But you know, like you said, there was some tips here.
Nick Minker
Counting calories could be a good thing. Yeah. That's including the alcohol intake, but purging is fine.
Cameron Rubner
Uh, the, the stigma, you know, there's stigma. I feel like, you know, telling people what to eat-we are not telling you what to eat. We would never, right. These are just tips and advice. You know, if you want to listen to us, cause we don't, you know, we don't generally practice healthy eating like this. But we wanted to start a discussion because, you know, maybe we felt like there's a lot of ASU students that don't even realize that their diet is bad for them. And maybe you don't realize why you're tired every day and, uh, why you're lacking energy, why you can't stay awake or other things like that. Maybe, why you're so sad.
Nick Minker: You are what you eat.
Cameron Rubner
You are what you eat. When you're hungry and you put in good things. You get, you feed yourself, you get out great things. It's true. It's true. But also have you ever heard of the phenomenon known as being hangry? Angry and hungry. I'm hangry.
Nick Minker
I’m so hungry.
Cameron Rubner
You're saying you're hungry right now.
Nick Minker
I'm so hungry. I- yeah.
Cameron Rubner
You see that when you're hungry, you're distracted. Cause I get distracted. I zone out like, oh my cause I'm thinking like cheese steak, or I'm thinking cheese. I'm thinking something greasy, something so good. That'll hit right now.
Nick Minker
Yeah, we have to change our way. I need to deliver some glucose to my brain cells so that they operate, uh, properly.
Cameron Rubner
Looking for tips. Everyone's going to tell you the same thing, ASU, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Clark. Right? I think it does help if a university- because this is my main thing. When you're coming out of high school into college. I feel like you take those dieting habits with you from high school to college, because it's the beginning of your adulthood. Right? And unless your parents were like health freaks or, you know, or kind of watch what you ate and like, you know, say ‘don't eat that that's garbage’, you know, you're on your own
to figure out your own diet. And I do think that, you know, universities have some responsibility to say, hey, you know, we have these resources, here's some tips, you know, try not to eat all this garbage instead of providing it at the dining halls. Okay.
Nick Minker
They tried. I mean, they tried, they have like, you know, obviously all the calories listed, like how much each thing is, but that's just, as far as like food quality goes, it's just, wasn't there like makes you almost not want to go to the dining hall.
Cameron Rubner
So it's, it just sits out all day and like, in front of the heating lamps and it's just. Um, bare minimum. Yeah. And at the end of the day, if you don't like the hot lunch, it'd probably just going to get pizza. Right?
Nick Minker
Exactly.
Cameron Rubner
That's what I, yeah, whatever, but you know, a lot of kids don't yet eating at the dining halls and you know, if that's, if that's your case, I would just suggest, you know, if you know, a lot of people do cook at home, I think it's just- you can eat unhealthy when you cook at home.
It doesn't mean that you're eating. Right. So I would say try to incorporate more whole grains, the food pyramid, eating breakfast. Right. And, you know, scheduling out your meals, if you can. I got a busy schedule and I can't always do that, but I- I do think that it would be smart to just know when you're going to eat and know what you're getting.
Nick Minker
Yeah. Drinking lots of water.
Cameron Rubner
Oh, I'm at least eight glasses a day. Drink any soda?
Nick Minker
I don't drink soda. I stopped drinking.
Cameron Rubner
I stopped drinking soda. That's the one thing, cause I actually got like, I dunno if it was body dysmorphia or something, but I was in high school and I was like drink soda all the time.
And I just started to notice, I was like getting love handles, and I was like, I can't drink soda anymore. So, you know, I'm just like the guy that needs the actual consequences shown to them, to their face, to make an actual channel. I have to make a change.
Nick Minker
Um, I will, I'm not going to lie. McDonald's sprite is like, definitely.
That's one thing I enjoy a lot. It's uh, nothing beats it. So, or the actual. The orange Hi-C from McDonald's.
Cameron Rubner
Oh, they just brought it back.
Nick Minker
Yeah, exactly. Literally it was a champion. Absolutely delicious beverage.
Cameron Rubner
Um, they used to have a drink, you know, now we're getting into the McDonald's, uh, conversation dialogue, but they used to have a drink on the east coast called Fruitopia
You ever had that- you ever had that? Fruitopia on the east coast? McDonald's, delicious fruitopia.
Nick Minker: Is that Punch?
Cameron Rubner
Yeah, it's it's punch. It's like a hi-c type thing.
Nick Minker
The last little knit tip, a little tip for eating is eating mindfully. Eat your food, enjoy your food.
Cameron Rubner
Enjoy your food.
Nick Minker
It's not just nourishment.
It's something fun. It tastes good. You don't want to rush, take your time, take your time, enjoy it. And when, when you can eat, um, sit down and really think about like, The process of making the food that you just had or, um, you know, that you're consuming, take smaller bites. Chew at least like 15 times. It makes you feel more full it, uh, you know, stimulates your brain a little bit more when you're eating-
Cameron Rubner
Food for thought they say, yeah.Um, there's a little truth to these sayings.
Nick Minker
Yeah. I found that, uh, When I take it slow and like not watch something, not, not be on my phone while I'm-
Cameron Rubner
Because everyone's eating distracted. Right?.
Nick Minker
When you're reading distracted, you're scarfing it down. It leaves, it leaves your brain more. Like I need more food because I don't feel like, fully, I'm done with my eating period.
Cameron Rubner
And I think we're all- I'm guilty of that.
Nick Minker
Oh yeah. YouTube and eating food.
Cameron Rubner
He ate without youtube!'
Nick Minker
Ah, I'm so weak.
Cameron Rubner
So any closing thoughts, Nick? Anything that we didn't touch on? Anything that you wanted to tell the student body? Because everyone's going to listen to this. They will definitely click on this.
Nick Minker
Yeah, they're definitely clicking on the Spotify link of a Junk Drawer podcast, junk podcast. Um, no, but seriously, uh, thank you. State press, for giving us the platform. Amazing opportunity. Um, this studio.
Cameron Rubner
Yeah, we'll get some decor in here sometime. And I just want to just say, I, you know, we are the state press magazine podcast, but this issue didn't really touch on the magazine that came out yet.
Uh, just wanted to say that this episode's been in the works.
Nick Minker
It was a consumption issue. It was a consumption issue.
Cameron Rubner
No it was culture. And that was cool.
That was culture. Uh, uh, all right. Well, the next issue is consumption.
Nick Minker
That it was my fault, my fault, my fault. I'm so weak,.
Cameron Rubner
But yes, we will have- so the way the show was going to work, uh, two episodes.
And, uh, one of them will be, uh, pertaining to the actual issue of the state press magazine. And, uh, the other week is a topic of our choice today. We wanted to dive into student eating and, uh, I think we, I think we chow down on that topic had some great, great dialogue. What do you think, Nick?
Nick Minker
Yeah. Yeah. I think we really bit into the topic.
Cameron Rubner
Ah, We like to have fun. This is the fun podcast on state press. So you're going to hear a lot of jokes like that. Well, um, I'm Cameron Rubner, or you can follow me on Instagram @fathercrub.
Nick Minker
I'm Nick Minker. You can follow me on Instagram at, @NickMinkerfanpage if you want.
Cameron Rubner
And we haven't made socials for this yet, but hopefully by the time this comes out, we'll have this.
Nick Minker
It's going to be at junk underscore underscore underscore underscore underscores that's five underscores drawer zero zero zero seven.
Cameron Rubner
There actually might be a few podcasts, a few junk drawers, which, but they don't matter. We were looking up, uh, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Nick Minker
Whatever it doesn't matter.
Cameron Rubner
And it's for State Press. So it has official backing. Everyone's just like doing it on their own. We have this platform that doesn't make us better than anyone, but not necessarily. It definitely helps maybe. All right. So, uh, thank you for listening. Thank you for listening.
Listen to the podcast on Spotify.
Reach the reporter at nminker@asu.edu and crubner@asu.edu follow @Fathercrub and @NickMinkerfanpage on Instagram
Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
