College Cafeteria Food
Jan0
About a month ago I received an assignment for my business writing course. We had to compose a letter as an angry parent and PTA member, protesting a hypothetical high school’s deal with a well-known soda manufacturer. The deal would require that the school stock only this brand’s soda and snack products in its vending machines (we assume no healthy alternatives), in return for sponsorship from this manufacturer. My letter went:
To Mr. Anonymous Soda-Junkie:
As a member of the PTA and a concerned parent, I urge you to vote against the contract that would install (brand name here) vending machines in our schools. With teenage obesity reaching epidemic levels, we must do all we can to discourage the consumption of the unhealthy, calorie-rich foods sold by such machines.
Statistics show that teenage obesity can have long-term effects and lead to asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and depression. As parents, we are supposed to protect our children from these dangers, not encourage them. We cannot pretend to want the best for our children if we surround them with foods which are so detrimental to their health.
The school board claims that this deal will fund our sports programs and after-school activities, but I believe the cost will ultimately outweigh any gain. Kids who want to pursue sports will do so whether or not our gym is updated. Further, there are other ways to raise money for extracurriculars: performances, fund-raisers, etc. These would also encourage teamwork among teens and help build a community environment.
Please remember that we are preparing our children for life. I trust that you will choose what is best for them.
Sincerely, etc.
My professor told us to assume high school kids weren’t mature enough to make decisions about what was good for them. There was no possibility in our minds that the hypothetical students just wouldn’t buy these sugar-laden, caramel-color-infused products. The likelihood was that we had consumed these treats back in our high school days (guilty). But were we that much wiser now?
It barely merits mentioning that most of my classmates had Snickers bars and bags of Lays stashed under their desks as we held this very discussion. My mind drifted to a recent experience I’d had with campus food.
Our college cafeteria has about a dozen different food concessions, but only one Kosher stand for a student body that is roughly 30% Jewish. This particular Café is infamous for offering two options: pizza and pasta. The other possibility for us Jews is the ever-present vending machine. We, like the high school in the letter, have no healthy food available to us. So imagine my delight when I read on a well-displayed campus ad screen that “Vegan option, Farmer’s Market now open in the cafeteria!”
Finally! No more would I have to stare at the cafeteria’s greasy entrees. I hurried over, spotting several more flyers announcing this mythical, healthful, long-awaited option along the way.
I found a foot’s worth of counter space between the napkin baskets and (you guessed it) potato chips. It was contained three baskets of produce. One was apples, one was pears. The third was onions. An index card-sized marker before it indicated Farmer’s Market. I looked up at the cashier.
“Where’s the farmer’s market?”
“You’re looking at it.”
“This is the one on all the signs?”
“Yup. Dunno who would want an onion.”
I could just pack a lunch. I know this. Sometimes I do. Other times I wake up late, or I forget. On those days I’ll wait until I get home to eat. Sometimes I’ve given in and gotten the pizza. I spoke to the college food director’s secretary (ah, bureaucracy). Several of my friends sent in complaints. I’ve been told so many students complained about the lack of healthy food that the Kosher Café started serving wrapped turkey sandwiches. But in the meantime, most of the student body, even non-kosher-ites who have the healthy (treif) vegetarian stand and other options, still crunch on their sour-cream and onion chips and down their Cola by the quart. Have we really learnt anything since high school?
I’ve been told to stop complaining and just bring my own friggin’ food. But I can’t help mourning this hold the ever-present vending machine has over us. Just this morning I left my winter class, stomach growling so loud I couldn’t concentrate. Of course the cafeteria was closed, and that left only the vending machine. I could feel it laugh as I slipped in quarters for an overpriced chocolate bar. Should I refocus my homework letter to the college? I know what they’ll say. That we should be old enough and smart enough by now to know NOT to center our diet on cans of cola and candy bars. And they’re right, but what about those who live on campus, who have no other options? Those are the ones who eat pizza every day, whether they like to or not. It’s the easy option.
I know I’m in no position to complain, but the thought of the eating habits they’re promoting by not caring makes me thank G-d I live at home. I look at the vending machine with vengeful eyes. Next time, I think, I’ll get the better of you. Next time, I’ll bring hummus and celery sticks, and then we’ll see who’s laughing.
I don't know why you should think that 96 mg/dL is a high blood glucose level. That's actually a good fasting level. (You don't say that it was a fasting blood glucose level, but if it is, that's well within the 'normal' range of a non-diabetic. If it was just a random test ... taken at anytime during the day ... that's an even better indicator that you're not diabetic as you'd expect your blood glucose levels to rise after eating anyway.)Although fast food isn't exactly the 'best' type of diet for anyone, unless you're 'piling no the pounds', you don't seem to need to be concerned about developing diabetes. (There does appear to be a correlation between people who are overweight and the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, but there needs to be other risk factors involved or otherwise every fat person would be type 2 diabetic, and that simply isn't the case.)
I wish you the best of luck for a long, happy, healthy life.