By Pooja Jaisinghani STAFF WRITER
On a college campus at times it might seem nearly impossible to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Let’s focus on breakfast. Your first meal in the morning is a good indicator of how the rest of your day will go. You should choose something that is going to fill you up for a long day of classes and give you the energy to stay awake and focused.
Here are some nutritious food options to swap while you use your meal plan at Hofstra. Keep these dos and don’ts in mind when ordering breakfast at Au Bon Pain:
On Breakfast Bagels
Don’t: Get the jalapeño double cheddar bagel, asiago cheese bagel or cinnamon crisp bagel. Those have the most grams of fat, highest amount of calories and most milligrams of sodium.
Do: Choose the whole wheat skinny bagel or the skinny plain bagel. For low fat intake, choose the cinnamon raisin (not to be confused with cinnamon crisp), onion dill, plain, whole wheat or the everything bagel. For low sodium intake, choose the sesame seed bagel or the plain bagel.
On Breakfast sandwiches
Don’t: Choose the sausage, egg and cheese on an asiago bagel. This breakfast sandwich contains 810 calories, 46 grams of fat and 1,340 milligrams of sodium. That is the equivalent of a dozen donuts.
Do: A healthy and filling choice would be the egg whites, cheese and avocado skinny bagel sandwich. With only 310 calories, this swap saves you 500 calories, 30 grams of fat and over 600 grams of sodium. If you’re feeling a little risky, ask your ABP attendant to add some sriracha to kick it up a notch.
On Breakfast Desserts (Because is it really a meal if there isn’t a sweet ending?)
Don’t: Get the pecan roll, almond croissant, brownies or pound cake – these have high caloric intakes and are even higher in fat.
Do: Get the triple berry muffin, cookies (oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip or white chocolate macadamia) or the double chocolate cupcake. These swaps will save you over 500 calories, 40 grams of fat and roughly 20 grams of sugar.