What To Eat At A Party Store?

Snack Foods: What To Eat When All You Have Is A Party Store

So you are at your dorm. It is 3 PM on Saturday. You know you need to eat something, because you are going to be studying for the next 3 hours then meeting up with friends and getting pizza around 8 PM. You are hungry, you had a late breakfast or maybe a small lunch and all you have in the mini-fridge is a half a bottle of Gatorade and some crazy looking bread thing that you don’t want to touch. You can go down to the convenience store and get something to eat. But what is the best choice?

Very good question young jedi…

Here are the questions to ask yourself:

Do I care about how I will feel after I eat this snack?
Do I have a craving for sweat, salty, sour or spicy as well as general hunger?
Am I currently well hydrated, have I had enough water to drink today?

Answering these questions first, allows us to progress to the advice portion of the report.

What To Eat When All You Have Is A Party Store Next To Your Dorm:
Basic Principles To Live By

1. Go for the least processed things available.
2. Avoid sugar, corn syrup and any other refined sweetener at all costs. This will only leave you feeling foggy, and whacked.
3. Nuts are usually available. Peanuts and Cashews are stocked and some times almonds or sunflower seeds. Good choices to keep your blood sugar from getting too destabilized.
4. Fresh fruit, if they have it, is a good accompaniment to nuts. Fresh fruit by itself could send you into a less severe blood sugar spin, not anywhere near as severe as sugar, but still less than ideal for some. Fresh fruit by itself can work in the warmer months of the year if you are not terribly hungry and have eaten a good meal in the last few hours.
5. Avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. This is in most chips, crackers, crunchy things and baked goods in a convenience store. This is no longer food; it is there to extend shelf life. Molecularly more like plastic than food. DO NOT EAT!
6. Choose foods with simple ingredient lists. For example, Fritos corn chips. Corn, Corn Oil, Salt. Pretty simple. (I am in no way endorsing Fritos, but yes, I have eaten them in a pinch)
7. Cheese sticks, cheese blocks and cheese rounds. Only eat cheese from a party store if it is really cheese. This does not include cheese that you sprayReal cheese and Fritos will work in a pinch to keep the body fed.
8. Food bars, power bars, meal replacement bars. Most of these have refined sweeteners in them. Balance Outdoors bars are sweetened with rice syrup, a better choice. If all you have to choose from is a candy bar or an energy bar, go for the energy bar.
9. Fruit juice. Most places have fruit juice. This is definitely a better choice than soda but for some it can lead to tweaked blood sugar. It is a lot of concentrated carbs going into the system at one time. The most nutritious choice commonly found in is dark grape juice. Grapefruit juice usually has less fruit sugar so causes less blood sugar spike and drop. 100% juice of course.
10. Whole grain crackers. You can often find Triscuits or Wheat Thins. Triscuits are a better choice. Wheat Thins have added sugar and sketchy oils. But either one can work once in a while. Eat with some nuts, nut butter or cheese.
11. Peanut butter. Sometimes these places sell jars of peanut butter. Mostly it is the kind with hydrogenated oils. If stuck between processed peanut butter and some sugar bomb Whoo Whoo thing, go for the peanut butter. A much better choice is just to get some nuts. Remember, hydrogenated oils are closer to plastic than they are to food.
12. Yogurt. Sometimes you can get yogurt from the cooler. Usually a better choice than cheese or milk because the active cultures help digestion and you probably need all the help you can get if you are eating meals from a convenience store.
13. Baked corn chips. Better choice.
14. Canned tuna. If you have a can opener and you need protein, grab a can of tuna and a jar of salsa. Open both, combine and eat with Fritos or Baked chips.
15. Avoid any stick made from beef. This goes for any strips too. If it is made from processed meat and stuck together in a stick or strip and sitting in a plastic wrapper in a store, don’t eat it if you can help it.

To recap:
I would make avoiding sugar bomb spike and crash a priority. That means eating protein with whatever snack you get. My top choices in order are:
1. Nuts
2. Tuna
3. Cheese

As filler, you can get corn chips or crackers, maybe even bread. Here are my top choices:
1. Baked corn chips, blue corn if they have em’
2. Fritos corn chips. Simple ingredient list.
3. Triscuits or any cracker with a short ingredient list made from whole grains.
4. Wheat Thins
5. Whole wheat bread (if it is at the average convenience store, it probably is not really whole wheat, it is part whole wheat and part refined white flour)

When available choose fresh fruit. These three are usually the ones available.
1. Apples
2. Bananas
3. Oranges

To drink, I would stick with water. Juice if you are in need of calories to burn.
1. Water
2. Grape juice (concord grape, dark purple in color, not white grape)
3. Grapefruit juice
4. Orange
5. Apple
The miscellaneous food items that may also be good options include:
1. Yogurt
2. Canned fruit packed in fruit juice
3. Olives and pickles (if you are craving salt)
4. Energy bars of all sorts (watch out for refined sweeteners)
5. Sometimes other dairy products are stocked too, cottage cheese, sour cream etc.

Here are my top combinations:
1. Fritos and Tuna with salsa
2. Baked corn chips with cheese
3. Triscuits and nuts
4. Wheat Thins and nuts
5. Apple, nuts and yogurt
6. Banana, nuts, yogurt
7. Cheese and apple
8. Triscuits and tuna with salsa

Next, it is a good idea to investigate your cravings, if you have any.
The body is an intelligent system. Learning to deconstruct cravings can be really helpful. Often times of intense study can lead us to crave sugar. The brain wants fuel. Complex carbs are the best choice.
If we are under a lot of stress, protein foods help us stay strong. Protein also aids in feeling assertive and alert. If you are training for baseball, lacrosse, hockey, football, basketball, track, cross-country or any vigorous competitive sport, you need protein to repair, build and maintain muscle.
Cravings for salt could be many things, a desire for minerals, or the need to constrict energy.
Every flavor is associated with a type of energy and quality in food. Every texture does the same. Begin to listen to what your body wants and those will be good choices. Pay special attention to how you feel after you eat a particular food. Remember that feeling next time you want to eat it. If you know you feel bad, make a choice to either not feel bad or to eat it any way and accept that you are going to feel terrible.

Finally, this list of recommendations is based on a very specific context of food availability. I do not recommend making convenience store dining your primary source of nourishment. This is about working with what you have got. Food plays a crucial role in the expression of your fullest potential. For more information on the best foods to eat for a kick ass life, check out Healthy, Fast and Cheap. Guaranteed to give you useful tips that will change the way you eat food, save money, manage your time, stay healthy, balance your energy and even includes tips on dating and dealing with housemates!
Check it out at www.healthyfastandcheap.com/buythiscookbook

I wrote this after giving a draft of Healthy, Fast and Cheap to Evan Fairmont, a freshman at Louis and Clark. He told me that he enjoyed a lot of the time management tips and would use more recipes once he was out of the dorm. What it was missing for him, was a guide to eating when all you have access to for food is a convenience store. A shout out to Evan for inspiring this practical information. Thanks!