Comfort food craved Winter gloom brings crav- ings of carbs, and students plan how to stay fit during the coming chilly season By KRISTYN ANTHONY s the cold moves in and the stress A. the end of the semester looms, angara students are planning for ways to stay healthy over the win- ter. According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, people start to put on weight in the late fall, eating comfort foods and staying at home more often. “With the seasons changing, we nat- urally want to build that extra layer of fat to essentially keep us warm,” said registered holistic nutritionist Patty Ja- vier Gomez. Choosing meals with fresh produce, coupled with regular exercise, are the best means for fighting the winter blahs and stress of exams. Gomez said it’s common to crave salt and carbohydrates when experiencing high stress but choosing omega-3’s or nuts and seeds over highly processed snacks, is key. “Stress affects us on a biological lev- el,” Gomez said. “If you’re stressed when you’re actually eating, your di- gestive system starts to malfunction and you’re not actually breaking down all the nutrients you need. In turn, that supresses your immune system.” Ali Afshar, a kinesiology student at Langara, credits his program with helping him work out the challenges of eating a well balanced diet. With the absence of sun this time of year Afshar also supplements with vitamins to maintain energy and focus. “T try to adopt a plan that will help me overall,” he said. “It’s really impor- tant to cook for yourself. First semester here I tried to eat out a lot. Its not healthy, it’s expensive and it doesn’t make sense.” Psychology student Comfort Avavio said she craves “sugary” foods in the winter. To offset those choices, she said she opts for a more fun, at-home ap- proach to working out. “Me and [traditional] exercise don’t mix,” she laughed. “But, the Nintendo Wii -- | exercise a lot with that.” Gomez encourages students to buy in bulk. Freezing items and batch cook- ing soups or stews are good shortcuts to cheap, healthy meals, particularly for those on the go. She warns against starchy, comfort foods often on sale this time of year. SEAN HITREC photo Shoppers at Granville Island look at the prices and quality while shopping for their produce. Students shop smart People practise staying healthy and free of debt SMART shopping 1 Plan your meals before you go shop- ping. 2 Learn what the food prices usually are so you can look for sales. 3 Buy non-perishables in bulk when they go on sale. 4 Items at eye level often cost more, be sure to check out high and low shelves for similar items. 5 Shop around the sides of the store to find basic needs. Source: healthlinkbe.ca By SEAN HITREC s the Welfare Food Challenge wrapped up its week-long cam- paign, students with a notori- ously low budget are still having to find unique ways to cope with their situation. Last month, participants in the Wel- fare Food Challenge had to live on $18 worth of food for seven days, which is what people on welfare receive. The challenge was held to highlight how dif- ficult it is to live on so little. Students usually have more money than that to spend on food, but they too have a lim- ited budget. Christa Siminiuk, a third-year nurs- ing student at Langara, gets around $4,000 a semester in student loans, so she tries to shop for deals by going to one place for produce and another for meat. “Tt’s always a source of contention ev- ery time I go get groceries.” Siminiuk said. “There are cheaper places, but I don’t have a car, so I find that for me, Donald’s [Market] is the best for pro- duce and nofrills [for meat].” Bill Hopwood, an organizer of the Welfare Food Challenge, said there is a balance between eating cheaply and eating well. “A lot of people talk about food in Vancouver, so, at one end you have or- ganic free range, locally grown, which is great,” Hopwood said. “At the other end you have people eating survival food. The two conversations don’t often cross.” For Dave Schwartz, a second-year criminal justice student at Langara, finding good deals on food is not a prior- ity. Schwartz said he is too busy to shop economically. “I work too much outside of [school], so it’s usually just food on the go.” Schwartz said. “I just get the stuff I need and whatever price it is, that’s the price.” For dietary help while living on a budget, students can call 8-1-1. It is a free B.C. government nursing and di- etary hotline. Healthlinkbe.ca also has a page on eating on a budget. 66 With the seasons changing, we natu- rally want to build that extra layer of fat PATTY JAVIER GOMEZ HOLISTIC NUTRITIONIST \ “Tl Se eta =< , a KRISTYN ANTHONY photo Students hide from the rain as the gloomy season starts. KRISTYN ANTHONY photo Students come in from the cold, head straight for the cafeteria Tim Hortons. Young women empowered through South Van leadership program Teenage girls are learning how to strengthen their leadership skills By CHELSEA POWRIE couraging leadership and social responsibility in young women with its current program, I Am Girl. On the last Thursday of each month this from September-December, girls ages 13 through 16 attend Sunset Com- munity Centre to get involved in leader- ship projects, with the last meeting planned for Dec. 29. The girls organize S:= Community Centre is en- and operate food and clothing drives, among other fundraisers. These activi- ties develop their leadership skills and help them become active members of the community. Jyoti Shukla, a Langara graduate, helps coordinate I Am Girl. She was part of the team that created it, with the aim of meeting a need for girls’ program- ming at the community centre. “We felt like there was a lot going on for boys,” Shukla said. “We want to mentor young girls and let them come up with their own ideas of what they want to work on.” Most recently, the group has hosted a Halloween bake sale, the proceeds of which will go toward their Christmas hamper project to support single moth- ers. Maureen F. Fitzgerald, a gender di- versity advisor and feminist author, be- lieves these types of programs help raise a conscientious and strong genera- tion of women who are not held back by gender stereotypes. “We tend to drive our leadership model around what I would call more masculine skills. We must ask how we can create a system that embraces more feminine values, like collaboration and caring,” Fitzgerald said. “Any focus on girls and doing leadership is a good thing,” she said. “Women are valuable, feminine traits are valuable, and wom- en don’t need to be controlled.” For Shukla, the importance of the program is the evidence of the girls’ hard work. She has had girls come for- ward with causes they want to support that are deeply personal, such as a member wanting to support liver can- cer research after her father was diag- nosed, or senior members wanting to buy prom dresses for girls who couldn’t afford them. “We want [the girls] to think about what they really want to do, the issues they care about,” Shukla said. “Even though you’re young, it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything that matters.” 66 Feminine traits are valuable, and wom- en don’t need to be controlled MAUREEN F. FITZGERALD GENDER DIVER- SITY ADVISOR