Why is the UA trying to make us fat? Other than Core and Fuel, the restaurants and other eateries on campus are high in calories and low in nutritional value. The freshman 15 is now easily attainable with our fattening food options. Papa John’s, Chick-fil-A, Burger King and Panda Express taunt us every day as we walk through the Student Union Memorial Center. In comparison to Core, the fast food options in the food court are cheap and the lines move quicker. At the rate our food court is headed, we’ll start seeing the sophomore 60.
Core is the “healthiest place on campus,” according to the UA dining website. With their array of options, including gummy bears, shredded coconut and bacon bits, to put on your $6.75 salad, this “healthy” choice doesn’t seem to be all that healthy. Core’s motto, “food your body loves,” is a tad bit deceiving. Gummy bears and canned fruit do not sit well with our stomachs. As one of our only healthy restaurants on campus, it is not the easiest dining option due to its high price and lack of customer service. In popular grocery stores like Safeway, pre-packaged salads are a fraction of the price of Core salads.
Basically, we are paying $6.75 for lettuce and we’re getting steamed because everything else has an additional expense. If you want protein like turkey or tofu in your salad, it is going to cost you $1.25. For two small scoops of grilled sirloin or chicken, it’s going to cost an extra $1.75. Who knew salad could be so ridiculously expensive? With that extra money, you can buy an original Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich for $2.69. When it comes down to it, students are less likely to eat healthy when outrageous price tags are attached.
Colleges across the nation are taking steps to provide healthy alternatives for their students, and the UA should take note. The University of New Hampshire is going on a quest to become, “the healthiest campus community in the country by 2020.” Unlike our food court, UHM has eliminated most trans-fats from the food served in its dining halls. Most recently, the university is working to ban the consumption of energy drinks on campus. Officials from UHM are planning to remove energy drinks like Red Bull from the shelves of their convenience stores.
Most college campuses have a cafeteria and it’s easy to regulate what goes into the food they make. Therefore, it will be difficult to make such dramatic changes in the food consumed by UA students since so many of the eateries are fast-food chains.
Looking again at other universities, Yale University is involved in “Yale Sustainable Food Project” where they take organic food from a small farm on campus and bring it to the table. This project is a way for students and faculty not only to be healthier in the food they eat but also more sustainable. Here at UA, our means of being sustainable is paying an extra 20 cents for a biodegradable container at Core.
Students at the UA would be more inclined to eat healthy if there were more than two options. For students living on campus, it is difficult for them to eat healthy with such limited choices. This leads to weight gain and unhealthy eating habits. Sure, the UA has made attempts to make our campus eat healthier but these small changes are not making as much of an impact. Core makes being healthy come at a very large price.
— Jacquelyn Abad is a sophomore studying journalism and Spanish. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
