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New cookbook to help students stay healthy
Two University of the Sunshine Coast students are on a mission to show other students that they can eat well on just $55 a week.
Dana Craven and Holly Ambrose, both in their final year of a Nutrition and Dietetics degree at USC, are producing a cookbook to show how a healthy, tasty diet is possible on a typical student food budget.
“We’ve carefully costed all the recipes at local supermarket prices, with tips such as using home brands and buying seasonal produce,” Dana said.
Dana and Holly have their fingers in many pies as they try to help fellow students eat well.
“We both grew up on the Sunshine Coast and know that prevention is better than cure when it comes to nutritional health,” Dana said.
“Most people are time-poor and there’s so much takeaway available, so grabbing quick, unhealthy options is common, especially among students.”
The duo has been holding cooking demonstrations with free taste tests and recipe handouts, auditing the food at the University’s cafeterias and helping out with subsidised healthy lunches for students.
The icing on the cake will be the release of a 36-page cookbook, expected to be distributed free to students when Semester 2 starts in July.
USC Equity and Diversity officer Marjorie Blowers said the book had a full range of recipes that were nutritionally-based, easy to make and fully costed.
“It has everything from sweet apricot drops to veggie pancakes, with vegetarian and gluten-free dishes,” she said.
“There are heaps of shopping, diet and cooking tips, such as how to freeze meals without losing their nutritional count and what foods contain fibre.”
Ms Blowers said the cookbook and other nutrition and healthy activity programs on campus had been funded by a recent $47,000 grant from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.
The activities were based on the recommended daily diet of two pieces of fruit and five vegetables along with half an hour of exercise. The activities will continue next semester.
“The lunches and cooking demos have been fabulous. We’ve had about 200 students each time,” she said.
Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics Libby Baillie, who supervised Dana and Holly, said the degree was very practical and contained a large public health component.
— Julie Gatehouse