Dorm food debated

Dorm food debated

Fatty foods, eating habits may cause the ‘freshman 15’

By Ben Gilmore

Students living their first year in the residence halls often
want to expand their horizons in college. Unfortunately, some dorm
residents simply end up expanding ­ they gain the dreaded
"freshman 15."

"My freshman year I grew in many ways, including weight-wise. I
went from 135 to 147 (pounds) by spring quarter," said former
Dykstra resident Ali Kani, now a third-year business and economics
student.

Although some attribute the typical 15-pound weight gain to
college students’ eating habits, others blame the extra pounds on
dorm food they say is fat-laden.

But the health of dorm food is a controversial topic, and there
are many different opinions as to what makes up "healthy" food.

People involved in preparing residence hall meals believe that
students can eat healthy meals in the dorms if they want to.

"Dorm food gives you a lot of choices. If you wanted to eat
healthy, you wouldn’t have a problem," said Jo Anne McGill, a
dietician who coordinates residence hall menus. "But of course if
you wanted to be unhealthy, you wouldn’t have a problem either.
That’s because we can’t not serve popular items like
cheeseburgers." Given a wide range of choices, some students find
it difficult to figure out what "healthy" eating really is.

"I don’t know what I’m supposed to do," said freshman English
student Sandra Kim. "I thought I wasn’t getting enough protein, so
I started eating too much meat and gaining weight."

To assist confused students, the Student Nutritional Awareness
Committee (SNAC) publishes cards which inform students about the
importance of limiting fat intake and forming other good eating
habits.

But some students feel that food in the residence halls makes it
impossible to maintain these good habits.

"All the meat entrees look like they’re dripping with fat," said
third-year computer science student Nathan Hunt. "I doubt that
anything is very healthy here (in the residence cafeterias)."

However, some workers in food service disagree. Chefs at the
Dykstra cafeteria follow strict recipe guidelines and limit the
amount of oil they put into dishes, said Dykstra food manager Tete
Lulu.

"If a dish already has fat in it, like sloppy joe, we don’t use
any oil. If the dish has a lot of oil, we use low-fat oils," she
said.

Also, Dykstra food service holds weekly meetings with students
to listen to their input and suggestions for healthier or
better-tasting food, Lulu added.

"My ideal thing is to listen to students, to hear what they
want. We just put in fat-free salad dressing, which was my idea.
The students are raving about it, they love it. I’m a vegetarian
myself, so I understand them," she said.

But some diet experts claim the United States Diet
Administration (USDA) guidelines used by UCLA Food Services are
misleading and don’t lead to healthy eating.

For instance, the USDA recommends that 30 percent or less of a
person’s caloric intake should come from fat sources. However,
Robert Pritikin, a nationally known doctor and diet expert,
advocates a high-carbohydrate diet where at most 10 percent of
calories come from fat.

"Human genetics has evolved over thousands of years," said
Pritikin. "Genetically we’re basically vegetable-eaters. No human
being as ever been on a 30 percent fat diet except in the last few
generations. Refrigeration technology came along and got more meat
into our diets."

Many experts support Pritikin’s diet and feel USDA guidelines
are inherently unhealthy.

"Thirty percent is way too much fat. It’s ridiculous," said Dr.
R. James Barnard, a UCLA professor of physiological science and
diet expert. "Eating that much fat causes many health problems in
this country. When I ate at the dorms, I found it very difficult to
get a healthy meal."

Other diet experts feel the Pritikin diet is too extreme and
that food in the residence halls gives sufficient opportunities to
stay healthy.

"I hesitate to make blanket statements like ‘you must have 10
percent of your calories from fat or you’ll gain weight.’ A lot of
fat metabolism is genetic," said Lima Wesson, a nutritionist at the
UCLA Student Health Center. "Some people can eat a lot of fat and
not gain weight," she said.

Wesson added that she feels the real cause of the "freshman 15"
is college students’ habits, not their dorm food. "You’re up at 12
a.m. and you ate at 6 p.m. You don’t have cooking facilities and
you’re starving. What do you do? Eat munchies and then drink some
beers."