In today’s busy world, it can seem almost impossible to stay healthy.

Luckily, March is National Nutrition Month and Ashland University’s Student Dietetics Association is helping students to get proper nutrition on campus.

National Nutrition Month is led each year by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This year’s theme is “Savor the Flavor of Eating Right,” so the Student Dietetics Association has been working hard to incorporate The Academy’s ideas into their on campus events.

“We’re kind of just bringing The Academy’s ideas to Ashland University,” said Hannah Green, former vice president of the Student Dietetics Association.

The group is holding events in all of the on campus dining facilities during the month of March.

“We try to promote that in every dining facility which is Convo, Tuffy’s and the Eagle’s Nest,” said Natasha Kirkbride, former president of the Student Dietetics Association.”

The first stop for the group was Convo. Their daily specials included fun dishes such as cayenne rubbed chicken and sweet, spicy, and smoky pork.

Their second event was in The Eagles Nest, where they focused on healthy coffee options.

“We were focusing on the coffee and making a skinny menu, so different types of syrups and milk you can use in your coffee,” said Maggie Laginya, president of the Student Dietetics Association.

After Easter break, the Student Dietetics Association will be at Tuffy’s. They will be bringing in new smoothies including apple cinnamon smoothies and pumpkin spice smoothies. The Tuffy’s event will be on March 30 from 8-10p.m. and students are encouraged to stop by.

At all of the events, the Student Dietetics Association team will be handing out surveys about their recipes to find out what AU students think of the meals. The surveys have helped the students to make their changes permanent in some of the eating facilities.

“We always get feedback from students and then sometimes we can get the stuff to stay,” said Danielle Smenda, vice president of the Student Dietetics Association. “We’ve gotten the smoothie, the green power smoothie, to stay.”

The group hopes that their events will help to introduce students to new health foods and recipes. They have found that proper nutrition is vital to a student’s success.

“I think we’re seeing more and more information, research based information, on the importance of nutrition in school foods and how it impacts cognition and work performance,” said Kirkbride.

Kirkbride says that many college students chose convenience over nutrition, but the Student Dietetics Association wants to show students that living a healthy lifestyle can be just as convenient.

“Nutrition doesn’t have to be sacrificed for that convenience,” said Kirkbride. “You can still include whole, nutritious foods and a balanced diet and still get everything you needed done.”

Nutrition is always important and with March being National Nutrition Month, the AU dietetics program is making it easy for students to get healthy and start their spring off right.

For more information on the AU dietetics program, visit http://ashlanddietetics.blogspot.com/ where people can find posts from the students in the dietetics department about the latest nutrition and health information.