Stressing out during dead and finals week is a real problem for many students, too many decide to cope with carb-heavy foods and other tasty treats. But stress eating is a dietary detriment and can impact how well you perform on your tests, so it should be the last option for stress relief.

“Going to McDonald’s or something easy is always a good way to get some decent food while taking a break, especially with friends,” said Alex Yoo, junior computer science major.

Going out for food can be a great option for a quick, easy meal and it gives you an excuse to stop studying for a while. However, this is only a temporary fix that can make you feel even worse than before. Many students often rely on these meals as stress relief or even as motivation for their studying, cramming down calories as they cram for their exams.

Taking in high amounts of fast food at any given time is going to impact your health. Leaving your body to deal with the strain as you take your tests detracts from your ability to concentrate and recall what you’ve studied.

A healthier alternative for people looking to relax during dead week is to just take a break and talk with friends. Doing something with your friends is an effective way to decompress in a healthy, progressive way, as students like Jared Plancich, senior management information systems major, know well.

“Sometimes I take 20 or 30 minutes to go over to a friend’s place to talk with them and blow off some steam,” Plancich said.

The choice to just take a step back from the notes, book or other sources you’re studying from is good, but being able to talk to other people can really give you the break you need. Finding friends who are willing to take breaks at the same time as you is difficult. Keeping a study group guarantees there will be people ready to relax when you are. Doing this instead of relying on food will keep your body in shape for the mental onslaught of the coming weeks.

Our lives don’t pause for studying, but studying should never come before one’s personal health. Grocery shopping or going out to eat is still a great way to take a step back and relax, but it should be done with our health in mind. Having a healthy, balanced diet fulfilling one’s dietary needs can improve an individual’s results on test scores, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Studying is an important part of the final leg of a semester, but it’s not more important than one’s health. Dead week is supposed to be the time when panicking students lock themselves inside a study room or the library with a pile of junk food.

There are a variety of ways to study, but it is important to take a break every once and a while to give yourself some time to decompress. The best way to relax will be different for everyone, but keep your health in mind before turning to that bag of chips.