For students who are always on the go, eating right and staying healthy is often on the bottom of priority lists.

Healthy, cheap alternatives are a must for college students who need nutritious food to keep them going from the moment they wake up to the time they finish studying or partying at late hours. Eating healthy snacks along with nutritious meals can help to make the “Freshman 15” a thing of the past.

Husky cheerleader Olivia Michalak, is always on the go. Finding time to eat a real meal between class and practice proves difficult, but she makes an effort to eat well.

“On some days I won’t even get home until 9 o’clock at night, so I pack healthy snacks and eat them throughout the day,” she said.

When she first started at the UW, Michalak was unsure how to keep a healthy diet with such a busy schedule. But she soon discovered that planning ahead was essential to eating nutritious snacks.

“Before I figured out that planning was key, I would find myself paying $5 to eat something unhealthy on campus, like pizza, and then getting hungry in a few hours and snacking from vending machines.” she said

Patty Seebeck, a registered dietician who is working wide nationally-ranked swimmers in Spokane on their diets, recommends taking a healthy snack along during the day.

“Pack some veggies with you in a Ziploc bag everyday,” she said. “Later in the day when your blood sugar has dropped and you are hungry, those veggies will naturally taste sweeter to you, and they will fill you up.”

Michalak has made healthy snacks part of her everyday diet.

“I enjoy snacking on apples, carrots and yogurt with granola,” she said. “I eat yogurt and granola at least once a day and bring apples and carrots with me to class.”

Nutritionist Karen Lamphere, teacher at the UW’s Experimental College, advises trying to keep any diet balanced.

“When eating on the go, I encourage people to strive for balance by combining some protein with healthy fats and carbs,” she said. “Most snack foods like chips, bagels or candy consist solely of refined, highly processed carbohydrates and sugar, which can wreak havoc with blood sugar stability, leading to cravings, afternoon fatigue and irritability, and even binge eating. Trail mix would be an example of a balanced snack because the nuts provide protein and healthy fat, while the dried fruit provides carbohydrates.”

Foods to avoid snacking on are often the most tempting, filled with trans fats and sugar.

“Trans fat (partially hydrogenated oil) is number one on my list to avoid,” Lamphere said. “Trans fat is abundant in fried foods such as french fries, donuts and microwave popcorn. This type of fat promotes inflammation, heart disease and possibly cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. I would also avoid eating a lot of white flour and sugar since these foods provide very little in the way of nutrients and also undermine blood sugar stability.”

Two healthy eating classes — “Healthy Eating on the Run” and “Smart Snacks” — are being offered at the Experimental College this quarter. For more information, visit www.exco.org.

“The first one demonstrates how to prepare delicious, healthy meals in under 15 minutes (samples provided),” Lamphere said. “The snacks class shows students how to make several healthy snacks that embody the principle of balance. I make the snacks in class and everyone can sample them. Informative handouts with the recipes are provided, and I also have inexpensive cookbooks available for purchase.”