Students' project hopes to raise nutritional awareness on campus
Wade Parsons, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/31/05 Section: Lifestyles
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The decision to commit to a healthy diet is difficult to make and to maintain - and many college students don't do either. Today's fast-paced world is thick with drive-thru windows makes it hard for the stressed-out college student to make the right choices when it comes to eating on a time and financial budget.
Students are constantly barraged with a slew of advertisements selling tasty treats in a fast and convenient package, from "Sonic-Sized" value meals to Little Debbie snack cakes - never mind what they may do to waistlines.
And besides, even to those aware of the (non)nutritional value of the double-cheese, pepperoni pizza and Doritos, they look so good!
Even when students decide to eat in, rather than gorging on a bucket of the Colonel's finest and a gallon of soda, the simple substitute is often high-calorie macaroni and cheese, or some other similar microwaveable dish.
Amy Mastler and Holley Edwards are two students in the College of Agriculture trying to help other students make healthy eating decisions. The two dietetics majors were assigned to do a community outreach project as part of Professor Jerald Foote's community nutrition class.
"The purpose of the class is to make us aware of the various functions a dietitian may serve within the community, and show us a dietitian may not be working for a health club or hospital," Mastler said.
For their project, Mastler and Edwards decided to reach out to their own UA student community by coming up with some recipes for healthy alternatives to the more traditional college-student recipes, which students can prepare and will enjoy eating.
"We have three recipes that we have done some research on and have found the nutrition facts, one is a chicken pot pie that instead of having a more traditional pie crust type crust and high fat fillings it has a lower fat biscuit type crust with a lower fat filling," Mastler said. "We also have a recipe for picante salsa and a lower fat granola."
Students are constantly barraged with a slew of advertisements selling tasty treats in a fast and convenient package, from "Sonic-Sized" value meals to Little Debbie snack cakes - never mind what they may do to waistlines.
And besides, even to those aware of the (non)nutritional value of the double-cheese, pepperoni pizza and Doritos, they look so good!
Even when students decide to eat in, rather than gorging on a bucket of the Colonel's finest and a gallon of soda, the simple substitute is often high-calorie macaroni and cheese, or some other similar microwaveable dish.
Amy Mastler and Holley Edwards are two students in the College of Agriculture trying to help other students make healthy eating decisions. The two dietetics majors were assigned to do a community outreach project as part of Professor Jerald Foote's community nutrition class.
"The purpose of the class is to make us aware of the various functions a dietitian may serve within the community, and show us a dietitian may not be working for a health club or hospital," Mastler said.
For their project, Mastler and Edwards decided to reach out to their own UA student community by coming up with some recipes for healthy alternatives to the more traditional college-student recipes, which students can prepare and will enjoy eating.
"We have three recipes that we have done some research on and have found the nutrition facts, one is a chicken pot pie that instead of having a more traditional pie crust type crust and high fat fillings it has a lower fat biscuit type crust with a lower fat filling," Mastler said. "We also have a recipe for picante salsa and a lower fat granola."
