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Freshman Center

First-Year Insight

Fall 2000

Balancing Act:  Eating Right at College

What's New in Food Service?

Balancing Act: Eating Right at College

Freshman Lori Brasile’s schedule doesn’t leave her time to go to the Dining Hall for lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On those days Lori eats "whatever’s in the room" for lunch, and this week, "whatever’s in the room" is nothing. Lori and her roommate have been too busy to shop for groceries. Like Lori, many freshmen find they have changed their eating habits since coming to college, and the change is not always for the better.

One reason for poor eating habits among freshmen is the busier and more irregular schedules they follow. Taking a full load of courses, working on campus and keeping up an active social life may leave little time for sitting down to three sensible meals a day. Instead, students will either grab something on run or simply skip a meal.

Not only do many new students have difficulty finding time for regular meals, but when they do sit down to eat, they don’t always make healthy choices. A recent survey conducted by the Tufts University School of Nutrition found that the major change in freshman eating habits was a significant decline in fruit and vegetable consumption. Freshmen facing the stress of new academic demands, homesickness, and fatigue often turn to food that is high in fat and sugar for comfort. And when students eat out, budget constraints frequently limit them to fast food. Add to all that the fact that the transition from highs school to college is usually accompanied by a decline in physical activity, and it’s no surprise that the legendary "freshman fifteen" turns out to be more fact than fiction.

According to Gretchen Faulkner, Director of Berry’s Health and Wellness Center, what’s missing in many new student’s lives is balance. Free to make their own food choices, many students give in to their cravings for sweets or junk food. Other students, especially women, afraid of going home at Christmas 5 or 10 pounds heavier, diet to the point of depriving themselves of basic nutrition.

Of particular concern to Faulkner is behavior such as skipping meals, obsessive calorie counting, and bingeing and purging, which may be indications of a serious eating disorder. While occasionally skipping a meal or filling up on chips and soda isn’t going to harm an otherwise healthy student, prolonged and severe dieting can have dangerous effects ranging from weakness and anemia to cessation of menstruation and interference with cognitive function. According to Faulkner, 5 to 10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men in the US struggle with eating disorders, and the past few years have seen an increasing number of eating disorders on the Berry campus.

Of course, as any parent will tell you, getting your offspring to eat right can be difficult even when they’re living at home. What can parents do from afar to help their students make healthy choices about food? Here are some suggestions:

• Try stocking the next care package from home with healthy items like dried fruit, peanut butter, juice boxes and rice cakes. Throw in a bottle of multivitamins for good measure.

• Encourage your students to use Valhalla money on days when they can’t make it to the dining hall. Freshman Mentor Patrick Ouzts suggests getting a healthy lunch in a to-go box and eating it (discreetly) in class or on the job.

• Avoid being judgmental about appearance. While you certainly should be alert to the warning signs of a serious eating problem, calling attention to a small weight gain can sometimes cause students to overreact. Gretchen Faulkner says it’s not uncommon for a student to report that he or she started dieting because his or her mother or father thought she’d gained weight.
• Don’t be afraid to talk about health issues and to remind students that good nutrition is important. In the Tufts survey, students who indicated that they took a multi-vitamin daily were asked to tell why. The most frequent answer was "because my mother told me to."
• Make sure your student’s next visit home includes a sit-down family dinner with a selection of healthy and nutritious foods.

Warning Signs of Poor Nutrition

• Long-term fatigue

  Mood swings

  Significant weight loss or gain

  Brittle nails

  Pallid complexion

  Hair lacking in luster

  Sunken eyes

• Constant concern with food and/or exercise
  

What’s New In Food Service?