Food for thought....

From a very young age food has been a huge interest of mine in which when given the chance to study Food Technology I was extremely excited. 

It is this passion for food that has driven me to now study a degree in the subject. However, down a slightly different path than I first thought. When searching for food degrees just over two years ago I was instantly drawn to Food Science and Nutrition or Food Technology degrees. 

Never did I think that two years later I would be studying a more business related food degree. But this is a step I am so glad I took. Learning about a different side of the industry I love so much has not only been academically challenging but also extremely interesting. I even found I quite enjoy learning about the agriculture side of the industry which I never thought I would considering how much of a city girl I am.

However, the aim of this post wasn't to talk about this passion of mine even though I could go on and on and on about it! 

Learning about food and nutrition has been a huge health driver in my life, allowing me to fully understand the properties of the food I'm consuming. This is knowledge that I hugely value. 

As a child my love for food (maybe a bit too much...) lead me to be fairly overweight for my age, which I look back on now and cringe slightly. I really did not understand anything about nutrition. Looking back on this I've realised how lucky I was to have the opportunity to study nutrition because this encouraged me to make a change in my lifestyle
. From the start of my foodie adventure in 2009, when I was in year eight, I changed my diet for the better.

 Now I didn't make any huge change but being more aware of what I was eating, and how much, made a great deal of difference to my weight and health. 

Although, I am not the slimmest of people I'm now of a healthy weight for my age and height which was always a huge driver for my younger self. I also quite enjoy working out and seeing results from this, which I never used to have the motivation for. 
 Of course like any human being I don't follow a strict diet because of this knowledge but try and maintain a balanced diet based upon these foundations. And after all we need a treat once in a while. 

 My huge passion for baking also leads me to creating some of the most unhealthy foods out there, but my joy in this comes from seeing other people enjoy my creations and not myself....which I suppose is a bit cheeky really!

It is for those reasons that I believe it is so important for all young people to have the opportunity to learn about nutrition in school. I've learnt that is is a subject that is hugely undervalued within academia. Throughout school I was (unintentionally) put down about studying Food Technology due to the outdated views of the subject as 'just' cooking. 

This caused a lot of irritation to not only me but all my fellow foodie students, my parents and my food tech teacher.
 For starters cooking is a key skill that you need in life so its just as important to learn as anything else, which when starting university I found quite a few people did not have this skill. But also to be able to be good at cooking, at A-Level standard, you have to know a fair bit about the interaction of foods and the science behind the nutrients within food. This is what many did not understand. 

I can remember not only my family, but many of my friends being blown away by the amount of work involved in the subject, as well as the amount of time I would spend completing this work during my breaks and after school. 

This is still an ongoing battle within the education system with Food Technology being dropped as an A-Level subject, which hugely upset me to find out. Students like me will no longer get an opportunity to learn about this amazing subject at a higher level, which I think is a great shame. Of course some nutrition is taught within the Biology syllabus however, this is not from a hugely foodie direction. An issue also arises from this as students similar to me who are not as tuned into science subjects may struggle to be able to study it at all, which could cause issues when applying for food related degrees. Of course one person like me cannot change societies views on this subject but I hope to raise some awareness to those I can about how important this subject is to our daily lives. 

The food industry is one of the fastest growing industries throughout the world, contributing hugely not only to the economy but a huge percentage of our global workforce. There will always be jobs in the food industry, and an ever growing need for graduates within this field to fuel innovation and development, which I hope to contribute to in the future. 

For now all I can do is carry on my passion and hope that others will come to realise what a hugely important subject it is, and follow the footsteps of individuals such as Jamie Oliver who are trying raise awareness for this. 

With an ever growing obesity crisis throughout the world, and two billion people suffering from micro nutrient deficiencies it is evident that change needs to be made. Making consumers more aware of their food choices, as well as how to maintain a healthy lifestyle on a budget is of great importance, which could be aided through proper education. 

I hope I've maybe got you thinking about your lifestyle and the little changes that could be made to start becoming healthier. After all a healthy diet doesn't have to be a boring one! 

http://www.fao.org/3/a-c0064e.pdf

A new chapter: Budgeting and student cooking

This is the final post of my mini series of University life posts, which I hope have been of some use to anyone who's starting university. The final piece of advice I wanted to give was on budgeting and student cooking, two things in which some may not have done a lot before (haha). 

As I lived at home with my parents throughout my time at school you could say I had it pretty easy when it came to budgeting because I didn't have much to pay for. Don't get me wrong I had a part time job so I could afford to buy my own clothes and go out with my friends but apart from that everything else was pretty much sorted for me. This is probably very common, which is why I thought it would be good to give a few tips on how I budgeted myself with this new sense of freedom and responsibility. 

Before going to university I did a lot of research on things that I would be spending money on in which rent, food, books and social activities topped the lists. From my experience your student finance loan may cover most or all (if your lucky) of your rent, so when it comes to that all you have to worry about is paying it on time. However, when it comes to food shopping there are a few things you can do to save a few pounds. 

Luckily I was placed with a group of people who quite liked the idea of shopping and cooking as a group, which saved so much money. On average we spent £15 a week each (at most) on a group shop, which is pretty damn cheap for seven days worth of meals. But of course there were a few things that we would individually buy which would mean that I tended to spend around £25 a week on food/drink at the most. Compared to some fellow students that I spoke to this was extremely cheap compared to the £50 they were spending! 

Cooking as an eight also had its perks too! 

Doing this meant that we would all eat at the same time and socialise rather than eating dinner in our rooms or on our own, which in the long run bought us much closer. This also meant that those who didn't know how to cook (*the boys*) could learn. It really did shock me to find out that some people didn't even know how to cut up a piece of chicken.....I'm not even joking!

We also were able to enjoy a variety of recipes that each of us had picked up at home, which were lovely to try. Having communal milk defiantly saved a lot of arguments about who stole who's milk as well! 

When it comes to buying course books I'd say leave this till your lecturers advise you on which books are recommended to buy. The reading lists for many courses are huge and most of the books are available for free from the library, which also place copies online for students too. My advice would be to only purchase the books that you are likely to use throughout the entirety of your degree, rather than for just one term. Doing this saves a lot of money, as I learnt that university text books are rather expensive! 
In your first few weeks go and check out the library and browse their online resources to get to grips with the systems they use, and to see which books are relevant to your course, you'll be thankful for doing this later in the year. 

You'll quickly learn as a student that pasta is your best friend. It is such a versatile ingredient that is super easy to cook and doesn't break your poor student bank account. However, to save yourself from boredom of eating plan pasta and cheese seven days a week take a look at some recipes online and build up a bank of them to get some variety. My favourites have been chicken pesto pasta with tomatoes and Parmesan, roasted pepper and spinach penne pasta and a classic lasagna. It's defiantly worth taking a look at the TASTY page on Facebook for recipe inspiration. 
To save money on healthy ingredients such as fruit and veg take a look at frozen options. Now some may have certain views on frozen goods being not as healthy as fresh however, this is defiantly not accurate. Frozen fruit and veg can often have greater quantities of those important vitamins and minerals than fresh due to the methods of transportation and storage conditions that fresh goods are stored in. Whereas, with frozen foods being frozen virtually as soon as they are picked their nutrients are locked in, and are retained for a greater length of time. As well as this frozen veg is very often much cheaper....what more could you want! Using frozen fruit on your porridge or yogurt in the morning is a great way to get some of your five a day without paying a fortune. A student diet doesn't have to be an unhealthy one, even thought there are many tempting student offers in takeaway shops. Remember its all about balance. 

Finally, nights out. Lets face it going on nights out is a built in feature for many students, and why shouldn't it be while the drinks are cheap and everyone is up for it. Make the most of it while you don't have many deadlines and you are able to stay up till the early hours!
Throughout first year I learnt that you really don't have to spend that much on a night out to have a great time. Most nights I rarely spend more than £10 while out, which means you can maybe afford to go out more often than those who spend much more....or or studying materials, whatever floats your boat. If you are on a campus university like me many clubs and bars are in walking distance of the campus which means that you may not even have to get a taxi or bus, saving even more money! Since being at university I have learnt to love walking, its a great stress relief and hangover cure trust me. 

I hope this advice was helpful, and that these posts have given you a slight insight into what to expect at university. You are going to have an absolute blast and I'm so jealous that I can't start first year all over again, but the next chapter is calling!