“Eat Your Greens!” How Chapman Veg Club helps students improve their health
- aerhoderick
- Mar 1, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 9, 2022
College students are likely to have unhealthy diets, leading to a decline in physical well-being. However, Chapman Veg Club wants to change that.
It’s a chilly day in Orange, California, yet despite the grey skies Lauren Hu eagerly digs into her smoothie bowl. “It has a lot of superfoods and it's pretty healthy,” she says.
Not to mention the perfect meal for a vegan like herself, or for her friend Lexi Propach, a pescatarian. Both are members of the Chapman Veg Club, a campus organization dedicated to plant-based eating. As they sit outside of the Blue Bowl in the Orange Circle, Hu (the club’s president), describes her vegan experience.
“It’s hard to have a balanced diet- especially as a vegan in college,” Hu says.
As a vegan, Lauren Hu looks for nutrient dense alternatives to animal products, like smoothie bowls.
College: a transition point
It’s no secret that the college lifestyle is stress-inducing. Students juggle class assignments, work, and social life. It’s no surprise that many neglect an important aspect of their day-to-day: diet.
Studies find that this leads to some startling outcomes:
On average, college students have fast food 1 to 3 times per week.
Most college students gain weight within their first 3 to 4 months of school.
It was reported that 95% of college students were not eating the daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables in 2014.
“I definitely have noticed that healthy eating tends to fall in the cracks when you’re a college student,” Propach says.
A plant-based solution
Luckily for students like Propach, Chapman Veg Club was founded to help students eat healthier. “We try to promote a plant-based diet, which is healthier than an omnivore diet,” Hu says.
Club members at “Nice Guys,” one of several vegan restaurants they frequent. Photo from @chapmanvegclub .
Eating “plant-based” (food derived only from plants) can range from strict veganism (only eating plant-based) to a Mediterranean diet (eating a balance of plants and meat). The spectrum of plant-based dieting may be the perfect solution for students looking to improve their health.
Studies show that vegetarians are far less likely to develop heart disease and high blood pressure. Eating plant-based has also proven effective for weight management, and encourages the consumption of more fruits and vegetables. Veg Club has taken initiative to share such findings.
Veg Club: resources and community
Veg Club’s bi-weekly meetings members discuss healthy plant-based recipes, and what types of foods to buy at the grocery store or local farmers market. However most importantly, Veg Club creates a welcoming community.
Lexi Propach at the Orange Home Grown Farmers Market. “A lot of other Veg Club members also come here,” she says.
“What our goal is mainly about is trying to bring people with different dietary restrictions together, and just trying to bring people together that have similar interests,” says Hu. “It’s really nice to see people connect.”
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