Students can stop by a cooking demonstration cart to get a sound bite and a real bite to eat after working out at the Recreation Activity Center to learn about healthy cooking from a student majoring in nutrition.

The demos are held at a nutrition cart in the RAC lobby, where senior nutrition and food science major Brianna Dumas introduces new foods and hands out samples to students as they leave the facility.

“As a program assistant, one of my projects was to bring nutrition services back to CRI through cooking demos,” said Brianna Dumas, who is also a group fitness instructor at CRI. “We do demos once a month, focusing on foods that are easy and cheap and that you could probably do in the dorms.”

Dumas said the last cooking demo was with Greek yogurt. She handed out samples of three different brands and explained that the yogurt can be eaten alone as a source of protein or as a sour cream substitute.

The cooking demo series has been able to reach out to other food related organizations on campus, including GSU Dining Services, the Wellness Program, Student Dietetic Association and local bakery Sugar Magnolia, Dumas said.

“All of CRI loves Sugar Magnolia. We like that they are local and always have food that we need,” Dumas said.

Michelle Martin, University Wellness Program director, said that learning how to shop for food is the first step to a healthy diet, but it is often overlooked.

“There are so many marketing traps that are confusing. You need to do your research and prepare before you go,” Martin said.

When you are shopping, sticking on the outer edges of the grocery store makes you a more health conscious shopper.  That’s where the fruits, vegetables, and dairy products are, while the processed boxed foods are in the middle aisles, Dumas said.

Taking the time to buy highly nutritious foods and cook healthy meals is an investment, Justine Coleman, Group Fitness director, said.

The cooking demos will partner with GSU Dining Services in February to demonstrate a timely themed demo called “Valentine’s Day: The Healthy Date.” It’s aimed towards guys, to teach them how to cook a meal and set a table, Dumas said.

The demo will showcase different locations on campus, like the Pickle Barrel and the Market at Centennial, where the students can use their meal plans to buy the ingredients needed to create the Valentine’s Day dinner, Dumas said.

Coleman said, “If we can invest in things like electronics, surely we can invest in what we put in our bodies.”