The problem facing Ball State dining services is their lack ofcare for the students. How the food is prepared, distributed andpaid for misleads students.
First, some of the healthy food becomes unhealthy when it'sfried or saturated in greasy oils. For example, heart-healthy fishis being cooked in unnecessary amounts of oil instead of beingbaked or saut�ed with nonfat cooking spray. The food ends uphaving almost a day's worth of fat.
Portion sizes are also too large. Ball State has made a step toimprove students' health by providing nutritional information aboutwhat its food, but unfortunately, the portion sizes being servedare three to four times the recommended amount. Students will lookat the nutritional information for one serving and think that theyare receiving one serving. In reality, they got a much-largeramount. This causes students to consume more calories and fat thanwhat they need or what their bodies would normally burn off in aday. This results in weight gain like the "Freshman 15."
Studies by psychology professor Paul Rozin at the University ofPennsylvania have found that if a typical person is given a platefull of food, he will most likely eat all of it.
"It's asking an awful lot to expect people to show restraintwhen presented with a giant plate heaped with good food or anoffice gantlet of communal, candy-filled bowls," Rozin stated.
Students' bodies would not notice the difference if portionsizes were smaller and correct. When someone eats too much to burnoff, the body stores it. Too-large portion sizes cause weight gainand can lead to heart disease and high cholesterol.
Lastly, the payment system hurts students because they losetheir money if they do not spend the full amount for that meal.Because of this, students get more food than they normally wouldand consume more because it is there. Students turn to the cookies,ice cream, cakes and candies to maximize their meal-planallowances. A large portion of all of these foods waits by the cashregister for people to grab when they have extra money. If themoney students do not spend is given back to them, they would notresort to grabbing these fattening foods.
Students are becoming unhealthy and fatter because of the oilyand fried foods, the humongous portions and the extra moneystudents do not want to waste. If food was cooked healthier andportion sizes adhered to government standards, dramatic weight losswould occur across campus.
Now is the time to change. If eating habits are changed now, theobesity rate in America can drop. We should do something now tomake the future a better one. This university and community has agreat amount of power over students' eating habits, and if nothingis done, it appears that they don't care about the risks of heartdisease and weight gain.
It really comes down to how much people want to change and howmuch Ball State University cares about its students' wellbeing.
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