Healthy Eating in the Dining Hall

Fiona Rowlands 

Opinion Writer 

It can be hard to be healthy in college. Having limited time for working out and being able to go back for second or third helpings in the dining hall makes it hard to stay healthy. However, the food that the dining hall serves makes it especially hard to eat healthily.

Bianca Leon, a junior said “Maybe there aren’t any healthy options. There aren’t any diverse food options and I don’t think they actually cook.” While I agree with Bianca, I do think you can at least get enough vegetables in the dining hall. There is a salad bar along with some cooked vegetables at every meal. Getting enough fruits and vegetables isn’t too hard. However, there tends to be an overabundance of carbohydrates and meat. There are a lot of people who reduce their consumption of meat for health and ethical reasons.

Some people are completely vegan or vegetarian, but just eat a limited amount of meat or fish. Dining’s solution is to have tofu at almost every meal, albeit poorly prepared tofu. This makes it difficult for people who choose to reduce their meat consumption, especially if they have a soy allergy or just don’t like tofu. Being pescatarian myself I find it very frustrating that there are limited protein options outside of meat. The dining hall serves fish on Fridays during Lenten season, but never at any other time.

Beans are another great source of protein. Typically, beans are served with tacos on Tuesdays, with occasional other times that beans are served. The dining hall has made some improvements in being more friendly to other diets.

They serve Impossible Burgers on most days and they also have vegan eggs at the omelet station. These are steps in the right direction, but Impossible Burgers are heavily processed. They are a great treat if you enjoy them but it should be a treat. When it’s the go-to vegetarian option every day it’s not the healthiest choice.

In order to get enough protein, I need to keep hummus and microwavable beans and rice in my dorm, but I still have to pay for a meal plan. Some easy personal suggestions for the dining hall would be to press tofu so it isn’t watery and to add more bean dishes to the menu. They could also try meatless Mondays and add fish to the menu outside of lent. There is a suggestion box for dining that can be found at the link below. https://www.diningdu.com/feedback.

frowlands@my.dom.edu