The Diet of the Average American

You’re probably eating too much meat. Now, I know what you’re thinking – don’t worry, I’m not trying to push a vegetarian lifestyle on you. However, an average American eats over three times the global average amount of meat and consumes one and a half times the average protein requirement in a day, according to a 2010 report, and meat intake in Americans has increased even since then. Further, most Americans do not meet the daily recommendations for vegetable or fruit intake. We’re seeing a wide-spread excess in meat/protein consumption and deficiency in the nutrients provided by plants.

The Health Benefits of Eating Less Meat

High meat consumption is associated with a plethora of health risks. Meat products often contain environmental pollutants that are highly soluble in fat, meaning that they won’t be flushed out in waste but rather stored in the body fat; this increases health risks, specifically for cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Studies have also shown that a quarter of the meat eaten by Americans consists of processed meats like bacon, deli meats, hot dogs or sausages. Processed meats are much higher in cholesterol and saturated fats, which increases the risk of heart disease, hypertension and cerebrovascular incidents where blood flow to the brain is disrupted; additionally, processed meats were classified as carcinogenic to humans, specifically in relation to colorectal cancer, by the cancer agency of the World Health Organization. In the same study, red meats were classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” There is also strong evidence that high red meat intake increases the risk of diverticulitis, inflammation in the colon, among men. Multiple studies have also noted a link between red meat consumption and ulcerative colitis (UC), which is contributed to by the interaction of meat heme and amino acids with the gut microbiome; those components are converted into toxins that increase risk for UC. 

Diets that rely on more plant-based foods, however, provide various benefits to human health. Focusing on grains, lentils, peas, nuts, beans, vegetables and fruits culminates in a diet that is much richer in vitamins, fiber and other nutrients. This helps support heart and digestive health, as well as disease prevention. Meat-based proteins lack the amount of fiber, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants provided by plant-based proteins. That said, plant-based proteins are typically not complete proteins on their own, meaning they don’t contain all of the essential amino acids that your body needs to derive from food. As such, it is important to consume proteins from a wide variety of sources.

How to Make a Change

Making any big changes in your diet can be difficult, but you don’t have to make those changes all at once. A great first step may be to eat a meal with no meat once or twice a week. When eating plant-based proteins like beans, try to pair them with a whole grain like brown rice; this will provide the complete spectrum of amino acids that your body needs. Certain plant-based protein options do offer complete proteins completely on their own, such as tofu. These foods may seem overwhelming to prepare, but there are a lot of great resources online that outline easy ways to put together tasty dishes with no meat. Budget Bytes, for example, has great options listed for a variety of types of meals, and they’re all affordable. Alison Roman also keeps a list of unique dishes with no meat, which can be fun to make. Beyond Meat is a popular meat substitution brand, and their website includes recipes that teach you ways to prepare meat substitutes, if you’re interested in trying some of those out. There are many different ways to approach a meatless meal, and the internet is a wonderful resource for exploring them.

When you do eat meat, you may want to focus your consumption primarily around leaner meats, such as fish or poultry. Avoiding red meat outside of special occasions could be enormously beneficial, especially if eating entirely meatless meals is a struggle for you. You don’t have to completely cut anything out of your diet unless you want to, but being mindful about what you put on your plate now can make such a huge difference for your health down the line.

Congratulations, you’ve survived the first few weeks of college! You got lost on the way to class, you forgot that one important thing at home and you slowly started to figure things out. Your first year of college is so special, and what you do during this crucial time can set the tone for the rest of your college career. As a senior, allow me to give you some advice that will help you live a fun and fulfilling four years at William Jewell.

1. Build good habits early. The best college experience is one built on balance.  College gives you a lot more freedom than high school, which is great until you realize that no one is going to remind you to do your homework. You have to learn how to manage your time, get enough sleep, keep up with assignments and still have a life outside of school. The habits you build during your freshman year will follow you for the rest of college, so you might as well start good ones now. Set aside study time so that you aren’t neglecting your grades, but try to keep at least one day of your week open for social activities. Set alarms, set up a calendar, whatever works for you. You don’t need to have your entire life figured out, but learning how to balance work and fun will make everything much easier.
2. Make friends with other freshmen. Your freshman year is one of the easiest times to make friends because everyone is in the exact same boat. You are all new, you are all trying to figure out where your classes are and desperately trying to remember everyone’s names. Take advantage of that! Talk to the people sitting next to you in class and introduce yourself to people at events, even if it seems scary. You don’t have to become best friends with everyone you meet, but sometimes a simple “Hey, do you want to get food?” can turn into a friendship that lasts all four years. Don’t be afraid to make the first move. Chances are, the other person is just as nervous as you are.
3. Take advantage of counseling services. College can be a lot, and there is absolutely no shame in admitting that you are struggling. William Jewell has resources available to students for a reason, so use them! Simply open your Brightspace, click “WJC Resources,” then find “Counseling Services” in the drop-down to see hours, location and who is available. You don’t have to wait until you are having a complete crisis to talk to someone about stress, homesickness, friendships, classes or anything else that is bothering you. Think of counseling like academic tutoring, except instead of helping you with calculus, it is helping you sort through the other messes that come with being a college student. Asking for help does not make you weak or incapable. If anything, knowing when you need help is a very important part of growing up. There is no secret rule that says you have to figure everything out by yourself. College is a learning experience in more ways than one, and part of learning how to be an adult is learning when to ask someone for a little assistance.
4. Telehealth is your friend. Sometimes the idea of walking across campus and sitting in an office to get help feels like way too much work. This is where telehealth can be incredibly useful. Being able to talk to someone from the comfort of your room makes getting support much more convenient. College is already busy enough, so take advantage of resources that make your life easier. Whether you’re working on your mental health or another aspect of your well-being, don’t ignore a problem just because getting help feels inconvenient. Your health is more important than whatever reason you have for avoiding the appointment.
5. Most importantly, go to as many events as possible, especially on the weekends. You will probably receive an absurd number of emails about campus events, and after a while you may start deleting them without even reading them. I know it can be tempting to go home on the weekends, especially if you live close by. Don’t. Go to the weird event. Go to the sporting event. Go to the movie night. Go to the event that you think sounds completely boring. You have four years to decide what you like, and freshman year is the perfect time to try things without worrying too much about whether they are “your thing.” Some of your best college memories will probably come from things you almost decided not to attend. You might meet someone new, discover a new interest or simply end up with a funny story to tell later. You can always go back to your room after it’s over, but you can’t recreate a night that you decided to skip.

At the end of the day, your freshman year is about figuring things out. You are going to make mistakes, miss assignments, get homesick, meet people you love, meet people you probably should have avoided and have days where you wonder what you were thinking when you decided to go to college. That is all part of it. You don’t have to have the perfect freshman year. Just put yourself out there, take care of yourself, ask for help when you need it and say yes to experiences whenever you can. Four years sounds like a long time right now, but trust me, it goes by much faster than you think.

You know their name. You know their major. You know where they usually sit in the cafeteria, what club they are involved in, or which professor they complain about after class. You have probably had at least one conversation that lasted long enough to make you think, I actually really like this person. You are not friends, exactly. But you are not strangers either.

College is full of people who occupy this strange middle ground. They are the people you recognize across campus, wave to when you pass them, talk to after class, and exchange the familiar phrase “ let’s hang out sometime.” You might follow each other on Instagram and know just enough about each other’s lives to feel familiar, but somehow never actually spend time together outside of the place where you met.

These are the people you keep almost becoming friends with.

Somewhere Between Stranger and Friend

College is an especially unique environment for creating these almost-friendships because our lives are divided into various spaces. You have your classes, your dorm, your job, your sport, your student organizations and the people you happen to sit next to at lunch. You can know someone well in one of those settings without ever getting to know them anywhere else.

This someone might be the person you always talk to before class, but once the professor dismisses everyone, you go your separate ways. You might spend three hours together at an organization meeting every week but never think to invite each other to the cafeteria. You might have a surprisingly deep conversation with someone at an event and then not see them again for a month.

None of these interactions are necessarily meaningless, in fact, some of them can make a large campus feel considerably smaller. There is something comforting about recognizing people. You start to notice familiar faces on your way to class; you know who will probably be sitting in the same spot at the next meeting. You begin to develop a collection of people you are happy to see, even if you would never describe them as close friends. Maybe that is one of the more underrated parts of college, not everyone you meet has to become a significant person in your life for the interaction to matter.

The “We Should Hang Out” Promise

Naturally, this is where the phrase “we should hang out sometime” gets thrown around. It is one of the most commonly used sentences in college, and it can mean almost anything. Sometimes it is genuine. Sometimes it is a polite way to end a conversation. Sometimes both people genuinely want to spend more time together but never figure out when. And sometimes, six months later, you run into that same person and realize you have said the exact same thing to each other at least three times. The funny thing is that neither person is necessarily lying. College students are busy. Between classes, homework, work, athletics, organizations and whatever else fills the calendar, finding time to turn a casual friendship into an actual friendship can be surprisingly difficult. There is also something slightly vulnerable about being the person who follows up.

It is easy to say, “We should hang out.”

It is harder to send the text: “Are you free Thursday?”

The second question creates the possibility of an actual answer. Maybe they are busy. Maybe they say no. Maybe they already have plans with someone else. Or maybe they say yes and the friendship actually moves beyond the hallway conversation. Sometimes the only thing standing between an acquaintance and a friend is someone being willing to make the first move, but that does not mean every almost-friendship needs to make that transition.

Maybe Almost-Friends Are Not a Bad Thing

There is a tendency to think of relationships as something that should constantly be moving forward. You meet someone, become friends, become close friends, and eventually add them to the group of people you cannot imagine college without. But real relationships do not always work that way. Some people will become your closest friends, others will remain the person you always enjoy talking to after class. Some will disappear from your life after a semester, some will come back to it years later. A person you barely knew freshman year might become a close friend later, while someone you spent every weekend with might eventually become little more than a familiar face.

There is no universal trajectory.

That can be especially easy to forget when social media makes friendship look so definitive. We see the group photos, birthday posts, weekend trips, and inside jokes, but rarely the dozens of casual relationships surrounding them. We see those who appear to be close without seeing how long it took to develop those friendships. The result is a strange pressure to categorize our own relationships. Are we friends? Are we actually close? Why wasn’t I invited? Should I be talking to them more? Sometimes the answer can simply be: We know each other. And that is enough.

Let People Surprise You

The best part about these almost-friendships is that they are not necessarily permanent. The person you only know from one class could end up becoming a close friend. The person you met during orientation might become someone you barely speak to by senior year. Someone you never expected to connect with might eventually become one of the most important people in your college experience.

That uncertainty is part of the fun.

College is one of the few times in life when you are constantly being introduced to new people, and there is no way to know which conversations will matter months or years from now. That does not mean every interaction needs to be carefully cultivated. It simply means there is value in being open to them.

So maybe the next time you tell someone, “We should hang out sometime,” you can actually make the plan. Or maybe you will see them next week, smile, ask how their class went, and continue on your way. Either way, you do not have to decide immediately what that person is going to mean to you. Some people become friends. Some remain acquaintances. Some become familiar faces who make campus feel a little more like home. And sometimes, the person you keep almost becoming friends with is exactly that: someone you have not become friends with yet. There is plenty of time for that to change.

It’s that time of the semester again. The assignments are piling up, your sleep schedule is a disaster, and motivation is nowhere to be found. Midterms might be over, but burnout is very much alive.

Here’s some honest, practical advice to help you stay afloat when everything feels like it’s sinking.

In Class: show up and tune in

It sounds obvious, but go to class. Even when you’re tired. Especially when you feel behind. Being present makes a huge difference not just for attendance, but for understanding what’s actually going on.

While you’re there, ask questions. Clarifying even one confusing point can save you hours of frustration later. And when it comes to note-taking, don’t try to transcribe every word. Focus on the key concepts, examples your professor emphasizes, and anything that seems like it’ll come up again.

After class, take a few minutes to recap what you learned, mentally or in writing. If you’re having trouble identifying the main ideas from the day, go back to your notes and ask: What’s missing? What’s the professor emphasizing?

Outside of Class: do what you can (seriously)

Yes, you should do the reading. But if you’re buried under work, skimming is better than skipping. Get a general sense of the material so you’re not totally lost.

Try to keep a consistent schedule. Set aside a few specific hours each week dedicated to studying or homework. Don’t be afraid to take that time; just like you’d schedule time for a job, practice, or hanging out with friends, your education deserves the same priority.

General Advice: function over perfection

Let’s be real, you can’t do it all. So don’t try to. Do what matters most, and don’t beat yourself up over the rest.

• Sleep. Figure out how much sleep you need to function, then aim for one extra hour on top of that. Rest is not a luxury, it’s how your brain processes and retains information.
• Stop overthinking. Worrying about what you should be doing often takes more energy than just doing the thing.
• Use a planner or calendar. Whether it’s a physical notebook, Google Calendar, or your Notes app, having a system to track your deadlines and responsibilities helps more than you think.
• Make a to-do list. Write down everything — not just school stuff, but errands, emails, meals, whatever is taking up brain space.
• Prioritize. You probably won’t get done with every single to-do on your list. Decide what can slip through the cracks and what can’t. That’s your priority list.
• Make time for yourself. Even 15 minutes of downtime can help reset your brain. Watch a dumb video. Take a walk. Zone out. You need it.
• Give yourself wins. Make small, achievable goals. You may not be able to do it all, but don’t be afraid to celebrate what you do accomplish.

Final Thoughts

College is hard. It may seem like everyone else has their life together, but I promise they are just as stressed as you.  No one expects you to be perfectly organized, well-rested, and on top of everything all the time. But small, consistent choices can keep you from burning out completely. So if you’re reading this with three tabs open and a quiz you haven’t studied for… take a deep breath. Pick one thing on your list. Start there.