Watch College Carbs to Avoid the Freshman 15

Our daughter will soon be heading off to her junior year in college. She tries to eat a relatively low-carb diet, but finds that it's pretty challenging, as everywhere she looks there are bagels, muffins, pizza, and sweets. To make matters worse, her college, in its efforts to provide "healthy" fare, have a lot of low-fat and fat-free offerings in the cafeteria, and as we all know, low-fat pretty much equals high-carb. There's sugar in the salad dressing instead of oil, more starch and less fat in the cafeteria line, and less satisfying meals so that students are reaching for that bag of chips a couple of hours later.

One way to avoid the "Freshman 15" (which is not limited to freshman!) is to learn some strategies for avoiding the College Carb Trap. Check out my Low Carb College Guide for lots of tips.

Photo of College Salad Bar: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Related Resources:

• Low-Carb Snack List
  
  
• Sugar's Many Disguises
  
  
• About.com's College Life Site