Students who have gotten into unhealthy eating habits can get the facts on their diet and how it affects their performance, specifically during finals week. The Center for Academic Resources in Engineering held a discussion event, “Ten Minute Talks,” on Wednesday night giving an overview of the important information right before finals. 

The most recent Ten Minute Talk, “Feeding to Fuel your Brain for Finals” was held in the CARE-Group Study Room 404 at Grainger from 5 to 7 p.m.

McKinley Health Educator in Nutrition Kelsi Evans spoke at the Ten Minute Talk. Evans said that the talks are a casual, question-and-answer format, where students can ask questions about the topic or discuss other topics, like McKinley services. 

CARE Program Coordinator Dana Tempel said that CARE’s mission is to give students personal and professional support along with academic support. To do this, she said CARE often works with campus experts, like those at McKinley.

“The idea behind a Ten Minute Talk is, depending on what the topic is, McKinley sends over a health educator who specializes in whatever the topic is they’re covering, and the idea is for students to just take a ten-minute study break and come and gather information or ask any questions that they might have,” Tempel said.

Handouts distributed during the talk included information on the importance of breakfast, eating during the first two to three hours after waking, staying hydrated with about eight cups of water daily and snaking healthily, like on trail mix or string cheese.

Virginia Luchini, graduate student in nutritional sciences and dietetic intern, spoke during the Ten Minute Talk. Luchini stressed how important eating properly was for a person while studying.

“You need to properly nourish your body in order to perform your best on your exams and keep you going during studying those long hours,” said Luchini.

There have been five previous Ten Minute Talks sessions during the fall semester, including “Stress Less,” “Building Productive Relationships” and “General Health & Wellness.”

Previous Ten Minute Talks also focus around healthy living. In a Ten Minute Talk last November, “Sit & Be Fit,” Tempel said the discussion focused on how students can engage in physical activity despite sitting for the time they do school work.

Tempel said activities like Ten Minute Talks are impactful for students.

“This really shows how important it is for the colleges and all the different units on campus to really work together to make sure we’re serving our students in every way possible,” Tempel said.

Tempel said that students should know why eating right and taking care of oneself is important while working on finals.

“Obviously, we’re in a mode of trying to make sure our students know how to study the right way without skipping meals,” Tempel said.

To keep these discussions easily accessible to students, those speaking on the topics go to the students, instead of holding the discussions at McKinley, Evans said.

“And it’s not really a huge inconvenience for us, and as long as we’re reaching the students that need some assistance, we find it beneficial for both parties.”

Students are curious about healthy eating, according to Evans.

“Sometimes it’s just a lot of dispelling myths type of thing,” Evans said. “They’ll come in thinking that ‘Oh, I should be at my teenager weight’ and sometimes it’s a lot of education about what’s considered being healthy as an adult, and not expecting to look the same way that they may have looked a few years ago, for a freshman.”

Taylor can be reached at [email protected].