It's a bad [dining hall] day. I try to be healthy, but they're just not promoting it."
Dining options on college campuses are extremely limited, especially for first-year students restricted by their meal plans to dine at an "all-you-can-eat" style cafeterias. The lack of variety at these dining halls is even more limiting, especially in regards to healthy, flavorful options. Sure, a salad bar and fresh fruits are typically available, but the same salad everyday is tiring and progressively less appetizing. Meanwhile, unhealthy options like diner-style burgers, French fries, grilled cheese sandwiches, sugary juice cocktails and sodas as well as an endless assortment of dessert are plentiful in dining halls at all hours of the day. Even the main breakfast foods offered are on the unhealthy side (i.e. eggs cooked in butter or margarine, buttermilk pancakes, bacon, syrup).
As I sat down with a few of my friends for dinner at the dining hall the other night, one of my friends remarked, "It's a bad [dining hall] day. I try to be healthy, but they're just not promoting it." If colleges are going to make freshmen eat at dining halls, why discourage them from eating what's good for them?
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Lackluster options and the way that most college dining halls are designed makes eating unhealthy an easier choice for students.
And with a loads of responsibility already heaped onto their plates, students are always looking to make the easiest choices.
How can we make healthy dining easier? Educating college students about how to eat healthy at the dining hall is a solution worth exploring.
And with a loads of responsibility already heaped onto their plates, students are always looking to make the easiest choices.
How can we make healthy dining easier? Educating college students about how to eat healthy at the dining hall is a solution worth exploring.