{"id":255014,"date":"2026-10-30T13:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=255014"},"modified":"2026-11-12T08:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T13:16:05","slug":"antonio-arcaroli-uses-social-media-to-share-a-passion-for-healthy-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/10\/antonio-arcaroli-uses-social-media-to-share-a-passion-for-healthy-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonio Arcaroli Uses Social Media to Share a Passion for Healthy Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antonio Arcaroli \u201927 (CAHNR<\/a>) never planned to start a business through social media. But with the help of a few turns of fate, he\u2019s developed a platform where he shares nutrition information and the joy of cooking with an audience of tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

After high school, Arcaroli began living independently which is when he first discovered a passion for cooking. The next year, he began played hockey for the Twin City Thunder in the National Collegiate Development Conference and lived with one of his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were living alone,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cI wanted to get into cooking, healthy eating habits, and nutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Arcaroli was sidelined by an injury, he moved back home to New Jersey full-time. There, he was able to translate his newfound skills into helping his father lose weight and his family become healthier overall.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Our meals] were mostly surrounded by whole foods, and, most importantly, foods that we all enjoy that we can eat without feeling guilty,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cIt also led to more family time, which is always a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arcaroli had been privately documenting his culinary exploits. But it wasn\u2019t until his mother encouraged him to start posting his photos and videos on social media that his following began to grow.<\/p>\n

After just two years, Arcaroli\u2019s Instagram (@organic_arc<\/a>) page has 100,000 followers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad she convinced me to do it because it really changed my life, and it motivates me each and every day to learn more about nutrition and put more information out there,\u201d Arcaroli says.<\/p>\n

Arcaroli decided to pursue his interest in nutritional science<\/a> more formally, enrolling in UConn\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn felt like home,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cThe culture, the people I met when I visited \u2013 it was the best decision I could have made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arcaroli is majoring in nutritional sciences and minoring in nutrition for exercise and sport.<\/p>\n

Since starting UConn\u2019s program, Arcaroli has learned more about nutritional science which he shares with his followers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was just starting out, I was learning about the micronutrients in each food,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cI would list out everything I eat in a day, and I would always list the micronutrients in that food that I learned from class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arcaroli emphasizes that there is a scientific basis to the nutritional information he shares on his Instagram. This is an important counterweight to the rampant misinformation surrounding food online, such as the viral growth of \u201ccarnivore\u201d diets, or low-carb diets for athletes, who need carbohydrates to power performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to educate in the simplest way,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cI really want to help people eat healthy in an enjoyable way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, Arcaroli studied abroad in Florence, Italy where he learned more about the Mediterranean diet which centers on whole foods, fresh ingredients, and a more social and active lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey walk a lot, eat seasonal foods, and don\u2019t overcomplicate nutrition,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cWhen I learned the way they live and saw it, I was inspired and brought that into my content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arcaroli emphasizes that healthy eating does not need to be boring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for me is that I want people to see something that I make and be motivated to eat that because it\u2019s a healthy meal, because it tastes good, because it\u2019s nutritious,\u201d Arcaroli says. \u201cWhen I get DMs or messages saying \u2018I tried this, it was great. I\u2019m going to make it more often,\u2019 that means everything to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-term Arcaroli says he wants to work in sports nutrition with collegiate or professional athletes. He has already collaborated with Mitchell Saron, a fencer who has competed at the Olympics, and cooked for UConn men\u2019s basketball player Tarris Reed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to help athletes because I was an athlete my whole life, so that\u2019s the ultimate goal,\u201d Arcaroli says.<\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on <\/em>Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a> on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I want people to see something that I make and be motivated to eat that because it\u2019s a healthy meal, because it tastes good, because it\u2019s nutritious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":255016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,2231,2301],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-255014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-health-well-being","category-nutritional-sciences"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255531,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255014\/revisions\/255531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/255016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255014"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=255014"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=255014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}