San Diego City College’s Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) hosted a financial management workshop on April 13, which offered insight into eating healthy on a budget to the students and staff on campus.

Guests included Nutrition Coordinator from Network for Healthy California Dr. Gloria Sotelo and her assistant with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition Ana Goins-Ramirez.

Sotelo and Goins-Ramirez offered steps to a “healthier you” including: following serving sizes, reading food labels and buying healthier foods.

SIFE Financial Literacy Project Team Leader Colette Desaunier commented on the importance of the presentation.

“I wanted to combine the issue of financial literacy and financial health with physical health. College students are on a budget. You can eat healthy on a budget,” Desaunier said.

The SIFE students provided beverages and snacks for guests. The Network for a Healthy California provided a gift bag including recipes, information on the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and ways to determine proper serving sizes.

Goins-Ramirez stated that “the main focus is education.”

The presentation also featured information on large sugar consumption.

“We are addicted to sugar,” Sotelo said. She brought out a soda bottle just filled with the amount of sugar that drink contains. It was nearly a third of the entire liter.

Several discussions took place during the presentation. Personal Growth and Behavioral Sciences Professor Rigo Reyes used his knowledge of the subject to ask questions and relate the information.

“With the amount of property the district owns . I’m thinking, gosh, we could put a garden by that chain linked fence,” Reyes said.

Sotelo used this to focus on the importance of buying from local farmers. “If we buy fruits in season, it is less expensive. If we buy fruits from local growers, it is going to be less money.”

Currently, we are putting food into our body with ingredients we can’t pronounce. “What is it we are eating?” Sotelo asks.

Sotelo offers this advice: “If you can go for organic, go for organic. If you can’t because it is expensive, then wash your fruits and vegetables with a brush.”

“Students ask me what to eat. I say eat what comes from Mother Nature,” Sotelo ended.