How To Survive The "Freshers Flu"

It's that dreaded time of the year again....

Freshers Week can be exhausting and make even the best of us ill between all the partying and lack of sleep, resulting in the infamous Freshers Flu but don't worry if your one of the poor unfortunate souls to catch it we have some handy tips on how to beat the flu!

Drinks Plenty Of Water!-

Water makes up over half of our body and is essential for you to function properly. Often dehydration can be a cause of feeling ill, create moodwsings, make us weak and cause headaches. It is recommended that most people drink between 1.5-2 litres of water a day (around 8-10 glasses). If you are not a water lover why not jazz it up by having sparkling water and adding some lemon slices or fruit to your bottle to add some natural and healthy flavourings.

Enjoy Alcohol Responsibly!-

Drinking in moderation is an enjoyable and usually harmless and usually harmless feature of student life, however getting drunk every night for a long period of time can certainly have an effect on your health. Not only wil helps the body l you face the dreaded hangover AKA vomiting, dehydrated, headaches and stomach pains to name a few but you could also put yourself at risk for weight gain,, liver disease and heart attacks. Drinking is a great social way to get to meet new people at uni, just simply be sensible! The average amount of units recommended per day for men is 3-4 and women 2-3. If you are going out to avoid feeling ill simply drink plenty of water before, during and after your night out and eat a good hearty meal rich in carbs and protein to help slow down the absorption process of the alcohol  and stop it going straight to your head.

Get Plenty Of Sleep!-

If you feel irratible and have a lack of focus in class its more than liekly your lacking sleep. A good nights rest, reccomended is 8 hours will more than likely help kick that flu! Sleep allows the body to heal, paritucalry if your feeling weak . Lack of sleep can be serious in the long run and have potential to be linked to many diaseases such as obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure. Getting a proper sleeping routine will leave you focused, refreshed and able to recover from ilness quicker.

Take Your Vitamins!-

Vitamins are essential nutrients your body needs to work properly, we will be looking at the key vitamins needed in order to boost your immune system to help battle that flu. Vitamin A being a good source of this can be found in dairy, low fat spreads, eggs and oily fish. Vitamin E another good nutrient for your immune system and an antioxidant can be found in nuts especially almonds, seeds such as sunflower seeds are the best source, green vegetables, sunflower, corn, soybean and olive oil. Finally vitamin C help protect the body from disease and helps the immune system. The most common source of this is from citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruit, however an uncommon fact is vitamin C can also be found in red/green peppers and kiwis, baked potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli and strawberries.

We hope this was helpful for you and if you are faced with Freshers Flu this week we wish you a speedy recovery! 

Top Five Healthy Menu Items On Campus

Hello Everyone!

So this week is what is known as "Welcome Week" as students begin o move away from home and move into accommodation, RGU have organised this week to introduce students to the university and Scottish culture before the madness of Freshers Week begins. This week we have been very busy meeting lots of new students from the Welcome to Garthdee event on Wednesday to visiting various accommodation sites all week to promote our social media launch, what we offer on campus and our new promotions. With all of our catering outlets opening this week we this  week we thought it would be interesting for all of you to find out our top five picks for healthy menu items on campus, a little insight into what we have to offer at RGU. Lets get started!

5. Freshly Baked Potatoes With  A Selection of Fillings-

A staple lunch item baked potato is on our list because the carbohydrates from the potato will  keep you full all day and give you lots of energy. With the skin on, the potatoes are also a good source of fiber and it can be catered to so many tastes! With a variety of fillings both meat and vegetarian this is an easily customisable menu item you wont get bored of easily available all over campus!

4. Omelette Bar-

Our omelette bar in the RGU Sports Café is another fantastic healthy menu item, eggs are a great source of protein, a vital nutrient especially if you are exercising in order to build muscle. Again this item is very customisable, you can add vegetables for an extra health kick or add diary by putting in some cheese or maybe add another protein boost with some ham.

3. Per Peri Grilled Chicken with Rice-

A menu item which was seen this week in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, per peri chicken is a very popular menu item adding a kick of flavour to your normal chicken breast. Chicken being a source of white meat is a good alternative protein and much healthier than red meat. Rice is also another good carbohydrate which means you'll stay fuller for longer and less likely to crave those sugary or salty snacks later in the day.

2. Boxed Salad-

Available in Scotts Basement, RGU Sports Café and Grays School of Art you won't struggle to find a salad on campus! A carb free menu item the salad is a nice lighter alternative to rice or potatoes if your feeling lethargic. Packed full of vegetables and nutrients our boxed salads are a key healthy menu item which again you wont tire of easily as the salads will be changing all the time! There are so many different vegetables, meats, dressings you can put on your salad it can be adapted to all tastes.

1. Soup Of The Day-

Taking our number one spot is the soup of the day! This lunch is perfect for the winter months we can already feel coming on in campus, warm, comforting and above all healthy. Our soups change daily so you can try something new each day some of our recipes including the classics such Vegetable, Goan Potato, Lentil or you could try something a bit different such as Sweet Potato and Ginger or Carrot and Coriander our soups are full of vegetables to help you reach your five a day.

We hope you enjoyed this weeks blog post, we will be posting again next Friday with a special post discussing Freshers Week,

Introducing Our "Eat Well" Programme

Welcome readers to our new blog!

 

We decided to create this blog as a space for us to promote to you our fellow readers our Healthy For Life Campaign at RGU, providing balanced, healthy and fresh food to staff and students all over campus. Today we will be discussing a brand new and exciting project "Eat Well" as part of this campaign we have coming up for all of you students coming to RGU both new and returning.

Eat Well is a brand new eating programme for 2015, allowing us to make it easy of our customers to find menu selections with wholesome ingredient's and good nutrition without skipping on great taste. Through this programme we are trying to communicate across campus more nutritionally-balanced food choices in aiding to a healthy lifestyle. As you can see in the image below we are passionate about providing at least one of your five a day through Eat Well, using whole grains, baking our food rather than frying, using naturally sweet food thus using no added sugar and providing various vegetarian options. These leaves will be placed next to our various foods from the Eat Well range so you can better find nutritious healthy options.

Our final little sneak peek for you all of what is to come on campus is a little more detail into how our talented chefs create such healthy dishes but still retaining great taste. Well as stated previously rather than frying we will be using other means to cook our food to avoid unwanted calories, oils etc. We will also be excluding highly saturated fats from our recipes and instead using 1% milk and Flora buttery as alternatives when required. Each dish will be accompanied with at least one portion of vegetables or within the dish itself and finally one of the most health conscious steps we are taking is to cut back on salt, only adding a maximum of 0.3g. 

It seems to be a stereotype that students only wish to make unhealthy choices often what they feel is the quickest and cheapest option. However in today's society we are all becoming more health conscious and it is apparent everywhere, particularly social media that in fact students do care greatly about their health to help them study, sleep and live happy long lives. We have researched and listened, therefore healthy for life and eat well are born. We are very passionate about food, and providing everyone at RGU nutritious, healthy and balanced meals on the go, meaning you don't have to sacrifice on taste or convenience for your health. Be sure to watch this space for more news very soon on Healthy For Life!