Nutritank will show you how to cook in a cheap, healthy and easy way

Are you interested in nutrition and cooking? Do you follow a healthy lifestyle? Or would you just like to learn some quick and simple recipes to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible?

Every student went probably through a moment when they had to get food for themselves to avoid hunger and keep their belly satisfied. According to the NatWest survey, and reported by The Tab, Newcastle is the second city in the UK where students pay the most for takeaways, and they usually include fast food such as fish and chips, kebabs, pizzas or burgers. 

If you do not follow the right diet, it can have an impact on many aspects of your life. Unhealthy habits will probably lead to gain weight and fatigue, but eating badly can also cause acne, greasy hair, mood swings and so on. On top of that, your body will not get enough vitamins, which are important to be immune to certain diseases and illnesses, or just enough energy to function. 

As Pete Kendall, a second-year nutrition student, said: “It’s important to eat a balanced diet because you need to keep healthy, keep the immune system boosted, and reduce tiredness, so you wanna be eating your 5-a-day every day, you wanna make sure you hit your micro goals, you wanna be staying as nutritiously sound as possible.” 

Money is another concern. Getting processed food is not only unhealthy but usually even more expensive than getting your grocery shopping and cooking yourself. But a survey performed by Sega and Two Point Studios, also reported by The Tab, presented that despite nearly half of the students having improved their culinary skills over studies, 25% of graduates still have not learned to cook yet after finishing university. And 28% were fuelling their bodies with frozen meals by the end of their degrees. So, Nutritank, one of the Newcastle University societies, in collaboration with the Nourish Food School ran a cooking workshop on Wednesday to encourage cooking habits among students. 

As Sophia Nahid, the welfare officer at Nutritank said:  “I think it can offer them healthier alternatives, could give them ideas and different recipes they can use, that recipes are easy to cook at home and budget friendly because a lot of students struggle with budgeting, and I think it’s a good way to learn more about that.” 

The dish of the evening was pasta carbonara. Everyone was wearing proper chef shirts with aprons and cooking hats. A volunteer from the Nourish Food School started showing others how to make their own pasta dough. Once the ball of dough was resting on the side, she taught all participants how to hold a knife and chop vegetables properly.  

“Today’s workshop is really fun, I find it really engaging, I find the recipe that they use very easy to follow and something I definitely will be doing at home,” Sophia Nahid shared her emotions. 

Afterwards, she roasted broccoli with garlic, followed by rolling the dough and cutting it into stripes for the original pasta shape. They boiled the pasta for circa five minutes, and then added it to the pan with roasted vegetables. The only missing part was mixing it with some cheese and eggs, and on top of it sprinkle it with even more cheese. 

As Kate Griggs, the treasurer of Nutritank, said: “I learned how to make pasta, and I haven’t done it for a long time, so it was nice to refresh that and about how with garlic, the more you leave it, the more flavour it develops.” 

However, Nutritank is focused not only on cooking masterclasses. It is a society, dedicated to lifestyle medicine and nutrition, including sleep, sex, alcohol consumption, stress, exercise and so on. 

“I think we’ll continue to do more events like this, social events, fun events, maybe I think we might have some informative guests coming to speak, giving talks I think, focusing more on the academic side, I think there will be more of that in the future, but definitely we’ll keep going with the fun social interactive events too,” as Sophia Nahid said. 

As Kate Griggs also added: “You can learn about how to eat properly and be healthier, like make sure you include all the food groups, the right amount of protein, carbs, which we definitely teach you how to do.” 

Because their core belief is that “the best medicine is to teach people how not to need it.” 

Sometimes following a healthy lifestyle as a student is hard though. Especially during the exam period, there is just no time to cook, exercise, or even look at the nutritive values of the food you eat. And keep everything on budget makes things even more stressful. However, university life is a tough preparation for your adulthood. At the end of the day, the important thing is to keep balance in your life, because your body will thank you with more health and energy for other life tasks.