YOU SEE them everywhere. They pass you on the street like an army of clones obeying some unknown leader. They seem to come standard with an iPod, although the earlier models still include a CD player. They're walking, running, biking and swimming their way to their goal. Who are they? They're the hordes of University students who keep physical fitness as a high priority and give U.Va. the reputation as "the nation's hottest for fitness," according to an August 2004 Newsweek article. But these same committed students, still breathing hard from that four-mile run, go straight from the gym to the long lines in the University Dining Halls to refuel, never questioning the nutritional content of the food served within. Yet even if these students were to question the healthiness of what they're eating, Dining Services does not currently supply the answers in an easily accessible manner.
Many University students actively seeking overall physical fitness do not realize that what they might consider the "healthy" alternative to the burger and fries at Newcomb can still contain high sodium or cholesterol levels. When preparing food en masse, one often must sacrifice nutrition to taste, or vice versa. The food served on Grounds is no exception. Students trying to maintain their sleek physiques have no way of knowing which dish served is the healthiest and end up choosing a less healthy meal than they could have because the information simply isn't accessible.
First-year students are required to purchase a meal plan through Dining Services, making it easy to eat only at the dining halls and retail locations provided through the University. Even older students living on Grounds frequent Newcomb, O-Hill and Runk for their daily sustenance without a thought to how healthy the food they're eating actually might be.
For a college geared so much toward individual fitness, the lack of available information about eating healthily on-Grounds is unusual, especially considering the abundance of those resources elsewhere. Several of the schools with which we compete and with which we compare our facilities have already recognized the student need for up-to-date information about what they're eating; both Virginia Tech and James Madison University have entire databases easily accessible through their dining services Web sites with comprehensive nutrition facts for the food served both in the main dining halls and in the retail dining locations around their campuses. JMU's dining services Web site is hosted by Campusdish, the same provider that the University uses, which indicates that making nutrition facts available online through the Web site is certainly feasible. Up until only last weekend, the University's Dining Services Web site mentioned an "evolving" online source for nutritional information that appeared not to exist; since that time, they now say that such a resource is on its way.
University Nutritionist Paula Caravati wrote in an e-mail, "We are in the process of analyzing the nutritional content of all of our new menu items and double checking that some of the older favorite recipes which may re-appear on the menu have not been changed." While this process is likely to take a while, Caravati said that in the meantime, students can contact Dining Services personally for assistance in managing nutrition.
Whether this forthcoming information will be as comprehensive as the databases that JMU and Virginia Tech provide has yet to be seen. The University ought to consider, however, that students also take advantage of the retail dining locations on Grounds and ought to be able to access information about food served in those places as well. JMU and Virginia Tech's resources about the nutrition of their food provide as much information as the nutrition facts on packaged food; Virginia ought aim to include such details in its own compilation of nutritional resources. Also, the University might consider making the information available in hard copy as well as online for students wishing to access it in the dining halls themselves.
The University has an obligation to provide as much information as possible about the nutritional content of its food, especially for the benefit of students who can't eat anywhere else, if it wants to remain "nation's hottest for fitness" and be competitive in terms of its facilities. Healthy eating coupled with physical activity maintains fitness, and if students cannot access the materials to guide healthy eating, their success in gaining or maintaining fitness is severely hindered. Whether you're in shape or out of shape, whether you're a varsity athlete or a varsity gamer, the University should make an effort to provide more comprehensive nutritional information to help us make this school healthier, one plate at a time.
Elizabeth Mills is a Cavalier Daily Viewpoint writer.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Virginia’s political parties have left our universities boarded up
By Editorial Board | YesterdayThe destabilizing consequences of the present appointment process have revealed critical and unsustainable fault lines that rest within our political system.
DUTTENHOFER: Cutting research cuts out students
By Lucy Duttenhofer | 2 days agoKneecapping the foundation of the country’s research enterprise just to follow nativist principles is an absurdly self-defeating, short-sighted strategy that is a threat to us all.
KURTZWEIL: Big Brother is infiltrating immigration enforcement
By Paul Kurtzweil | 6 days agoWhile this law does work to restrict the camera use, the data is still very loosely regulated, leaving it exposed to outside interference.
