Food for Thought (2)

In high school, many of you had the opportunity to eat at your cafeteria during lunch. For some, your cafeteria may have had a fairly robust menu, while others may have had to deal with the "mom and pop" type setup where the dish of the day is all you can get, and sometimes those pieces of lettuce on your sub aren’t looking so appetizing.

When you get to university, the food becomes a fairly large part of your on-campus experience, and for those of you living in residence, something you need to depend on. Most universities have a full-service cafeteria, a place where you can usually choose from a variety of foods, or food stations, every day, where the food is usually freshly prepared (prepared being the key word here) and the options may almost seem endless.

Sounds good, right? Enter the dreaded "Freshman 15". For those who haven't heard, it's said to be the average number of pounds gained by a first-year university student.

For many of you, the prospect of picking up a tray and going around from station to station within your cafeteria, and collecting a little bit of all the food you like, sounds pretty tantalizing - and trust me, it is. However, having self control when it comes to the university dining hall is also something that you will need to work on, because even though that double-bacon cheeseburger and fries doesn’t feel like it was enough right away, it was. Meaning that the two or three brownies you had for dessert afterwards to fill up what space you thought you had left, probably wasn’t the greatest idea. But I digress..

Generally, the food at your dining hall will be good. Some days, it will be fantastic (usually a day when lasagna or chicken of some sort is served), and you’ll know it by the wait lines and the buzz around campus. Other days, it will be time to go downtown to your favorite pub or restaurant because you just aren’t into what’s being served that day. Every dining hall on every campus has its good and bad days, and this is just a matter of fact - and it’s something that you’ll learn to deal with.

When you first look at meal plans, you’ll be presented with many options. My advice to you on this is not to cheap out. Get a middle to high end dining plan that will either give you unlimited meals, 7 days per week, or one of the bigger declining balance options. If the school you’re looking at works on a meals-per-day model, buy the one that will allow you to eat at least 3 times per day - you’ll thank me for this later.

Before visiting the dining hall, be sure to visit the food service provider website to check out the menu for that day. Look at the nutritional value of the food being served, and pay attention to it. Use your common sense to think about what you’re going to eat. If you spend all year at the grilled cheese and poutine station, you’ll be as big as a house by the end of your first year. If you balance your choices properly, you’ll evade the "Freshman 15" and still be able to enjoy the benefits of your dining hall.

Never be afraid to compliment or lodge a complaint about the cafeteria food either. If you went to the dining hall with specific expectations and they were or weren’t met, let the staff know. This helps them to prepare meals in the future, and your peers will thank you for voicing your opinions!

Finally, before you begin eating at a university cafeteria, learn how to pace yourself while eating dinners at home. If you’re someone who competes to see who is the quickest to swallow down a meal at the dinner table, that’s something you’ll need to stop. As I mentioned before, the food is usually prepared fresh, but that doesn’t mean it was prepared from scratch in your cafeteria. Often, ingredients are shipped in from afar, and preservatives are used to maintain the taste and freshness of the food you’re eating. Swallowing down more than you can actually handle can lead to some rather uncomfortable stomach pains minutes after leaving your cafeteria. We’ve all had our share of them and we don’t want you to experience it - it’s awful, really.

Your new-found dining room will become a place where you will not only eat, but study, and hang out with your friends. Learn to enjoy it for what it is, make the most of it, and make smart choices. Your body will thank you for it, and so will your wallet.