dining hall – The Western Howl

Written by: Isabelle Jones | Lifestyle Editor

Healthy food habits are essential for a student’s success both in and out of the classroom. For many people, college is their first time away from home. Constant new experiences, late-night study sessions and other exciting events can lead to many overlooking the importance of building healthy food habits. With that, we need to nurture a healthy relationship surrounding food as early as possible. No matter what a person’s weekly schedule looks like, they can always make time for food.

For many students, a busy schedule seems to take over daily life at the start of every term. Whether it’s classes, sports or music practice, extracurricular activities, work, internships or something else, meals often get shifted to fit our busy days, but sometimes when it feels like food can’t be fit in, mealtime tends to be skipped — a dangerous habit to develop. It can be tempting to skip meals, especially when one is running out the door, but it leads to low energy levels throughout the day. It also affects one’s ability to concentrate. This results in overeating later in the day, causing one’s blood sugar to crash afterward. Breakfast is, unfortunately, the most skipped meal of the day. Skipping meals can easily be combated by trying fast, easy and nutritious meals. This could be Greek yogurt and granola, oatmeal with fruit or even a frozen breakfast sandwich popped in the microwave. Breakfast helps with feeling more energized throughout the day and keeps one feeling full.

Since we’re constantly on the go, time restraints can lead people to rely on drinks to keep energy up. Soda, energy drinks and sweetened coffee beverages are loaded with empty calories that cause massive spikes in blood sugar and leave one feeling empty. Any person with a busy schedule understands the reliance on caffeine. Too much caffeine leads to jitteriness, poor sleep and huge energy crashes, which are all detrimental to a progressing student.

Sugary drinks can contribute to weight gain, poor dental health and feeling sluggish. This doesn’t mean that one cannot ever have a sugary drink, but they should be an occasional treat.

All should include more water in their diet. It’s crucial for maintaining energy and focus. In general, it’s great for overall well-being. For some — myself included at times — drinking water is boring and seems like a hassle. Try infusing the water with fruits like lemons or even cucumbers for a refreshing twist.

Stress from exams and the general hustle and bustle of health can build up and become overwhelming. Some can experience emotional eating. This happens when the desire to eat is influenced by our emotions instead of pure hunger. Many seek out comfort foods like ice cream, chips or sweets. In the moment a person can feel good, but feelings of guilt may arise in the aftermath. Emotional eating tends to happen late at night. This can be common during study sessions. Generally, eating before going to bed disrupts sleeping patterns. The best way to fix emotional eating and late-night snacking is through therapy since the root of the stress comes from other areas in one’s life.

When walking into the campus dining hall, one can see that most gravitate towards pastas, pizzas and fried food, but some forget to include enough vegetables. The salad bar is a customizable way for students to enjoy vegetables in a way that suits their preferences. Each vegetable is full of essential vitamins, minerals and fiber that support digestion and immunity.

Technology has revolutionized the way food can be ordered. All it takes is a few taps on a phone and food is delivered right to the door. This isn’t the healthiest option to be pursued and isn’t a budget-friendly option for many college students. Many delivery food options are high in sodium, unhealthy fats and empty calories. Relying too heavily on these processed foods can lead to weight gain, poor digestion and energy crashes. Once this has become a regular habit, it can interfere with one’s ability to learn how to cook healthier meals.

We see new fads and diets that claim to be “new and improved” methods of promoting physical health, but without the proper knowledge of what a person’s body is deficient in, many diets can be extremely harmful. This can be especially true when a person is constantly jumping from one diet to the next when they don’t immediately see results. Diets like keto, juice cleanses, the master cleanse — also called the lemon detox diet — and the “no carb” diet are examples of “fad diets” that often cause more harm than good. While these are just a few, the list goes on. It is essential to focus on a balanced, nutrient-dense diet instead of following fleeting trends.

As students become more independent, it can be chaotic trying to adjust to a new chapter in life. Eating habits are typically the first to fall through the cracks and tend to go unnoticed until the effects are visible. There are changes that can be made in order to shift a poor or unhealthy relationship with food.

The first is to prepare. Food prep is an easy way to plan out our meals and snacks. It’s possible to create single portions and teach ourselves how to cook. All it takes is a couple of hours and, in the end, it is one less thing we have to worry about during our busy week.

The second is to listen to our bodies. Our bodies naturally give cues to signal when we are hungry. When we are eating, we should take the time to savor the flavors and not push ourselves to clear off our plates.

When it comes to food, moderation is key. Instead of stressing over every meal, we should focus on making general healthy choices that will leave us feeling nourished and energized.

BUDGET-FRIENDLY HEALTHY MEAL

Start to finish: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cups Rolled oats

1 cup Peanut butter or almond butter

1 Banana

¼ cup Honey or maple syrup (optional)

⅓ cup Milk (or water)

Instructions

Cook the oats according to the package instructions, using either milk or water.

Once the oats are cooked, stir in a spoonful of peanut butter for healthy fats and creaminess.

Slice the banana on top of the oatmeal.

Drizzle with honey or maple syrup for added sweetness (optional).

Recipe from Lee Funke at Fit Foodie Finds

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu

Written by: Libby Thoma | Staff Writer and Claire Phillips | Entertainment Editor

Valsetz Dining Hall is a required amenity for on-campus freshmen and a necessity to many other on-campus students. Given that many students are required to have a meal plan with Valsetz, one would assume that its food would be high quality, nutritious, inclusive, and most importantly, safe.

Unfortunately, one would be incorrect in this assumption.

Valsetz has consistently had a problem with serving moldy, undercooked, and improperly prepared food, such as leaving feces in the food. Valsetz has also struggled with safely serving students with allergies, has racked up complaints from students of unlabeled ingredients and has been caught claiming to have food that is not available. Additionally, Valsetz has a critical lack of allergy food training within the kitchen, confirmed by a Valsetz worker.

Nearly every student who has paid for the dining hall has a horror story, and a disproportionate amount of students have experienced mild to severe cases of food poisoning due to the food they were served. Food-related illnesses have a significant influence on students’ education — affecting attendance and the ability to keep up with homework.

Food poisoning is not an issue to be taken lightly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 128,000 people a year suffer from food poisoning while 3,000 people succumb to this ailment in the US alone. It’s not surprising that Western students are now avoiding Valsetz Dining Hall after hearing stories from their peers or experiencing illnesses themselves.

Moldy bread, raw chicken, feces in shrimp, and many other unsafe food products have been served to the students of Western, resulting in terrible tales of food poisoning.

Out of 10 randomized students and workers who have a meal plan at Valsetz, only three haven’t had a stomach ache, mild to severe food poisoning, raw food or an allergic reaction. Three of 10 spoke of light stomach reactions to the food, one of 10 spoke of mild food poisoning, one of 10 spoke of severe food poisoning, one of 10 spoke about eating raw chicken and three of 10 said they haven’t had negative experiences.

Although, those who did not experience these things first-hand spoke of friends getting food poisoning, one even mentioning the story of a roommate getting food poisoning seven times from Valsetz in one school year.
Multiple students explained their stories of food poisoning. One anonymous student is quoted saying that after eating Valsetz steamed vegetables, “I was throwing up for days and was just throwing up literal stomach acid. They had to close the bathroom and use an ozone machine in it because the stomach acid was creating such a toxic smell and environment.”

Another anonymous student said they were “…severely ill for a week” due to moldy bread on a sandwich.

This is just a fraction of the many food poisoning stories breaking out across campus.

It is important to note that staff cannot be the blame for this. Staff members of Valsetz deal with plenty of their own problems such as being underpaid, understaffed and not having enough materials or time. The root of the problem is the dining hall isn’t getting sufficient funding.

This is shown through interviews with staff. One worker, who wanted to stay anonymous due to fear of getting into trouble, states that the fault does not lie with the student workers or the cooks, but with the managers. The workers began with their own experience with food poisoning when they ate a noodle bowl and had food poisoning for two weeks straight, with constant trips to the bathroom — another case of food poisoning greatly affecting a student’s academics.

The interviewee spoke about their experience with training, which they received little to none. This lack of training particularly pertained to training around safe food handling and, as the interviewee states, “We are unaware about how to safely handle the food and there’s been no clear explanation for how to keep the food separate for dietary needs.”

When managers were asked, each manager responded differently. However, even this may not even be the manager’s fault as they may have a lack of training as well — clearly this goes to the top.

The lack of training surrounding dietary needs is extremely dangerous, as some allergies are fatal. There have been many complaints, as stated earlier, of dietary restrictions not being met and allergic reactions occurring.

The anonymous Valsetz worker ended the interview stating, “That’s what made the work walk out necessary. During one of the lunch shifts, all the student workers walked out, protesting the unsafe food handling, the immense amount of waste and the unfair treatment of some of the workers. Although our concerns were heard and some things have changed, the process is slow and ineffective. The problems are being ignored and avoided by the managers.”

Many students are concerned that their tuition is being dispersed to other organizations on campus, and not to those that they use daily — such as their main source of food. Additionally, accessibility has become an issue for students who have dietary restrictions and who do their best to regulate the food they consume — their needs are not being fully met.

Regardless, many students contract food poisoning whether they have a dietary restriction or not — simply consuming the only food that is accessible to them.

CJ Denison, a sophomore and Resident Assistant at Western, recounted their Valsetz experiences since becoming a Western student. The RAs, who are paid primarily in food and board, are given the top meal plan to spend at the dining hall — only to be faced with potentially unsafe food. “I’ve reached a point with Valsetz where I mostly buy protein drinks and snacks and not the actual food they serve, because I don’t trust it,” Denison said.

The safest food options are also not necessarily the healthiest. “The fried food, which unfortunately is the least healthy, is generally the safest, because it’s cooked all the way through, and there’s not a lot of cross-contamination,” Denison said.

Cross-contamination is a major concern for students who have a gluten intolerance or Celiac disease, as well as for those who have other severe and life-threatening food allergies.

Many students have pointed out that the labels on each food item are not quite descriptive enough. Nutrislice, the online menu, does describe each item, but ingredients are not posted in person. Students may be consuming food they are not aware will cause them to have a reaction.

To make matters worse, another dilemma for college students with dietary restrictions is the rising price of safe foods offered by Valsetz. Gluten-free food is typically more expensive than its gluten counterparts. Because of the cost of a university education, and other costs of living, many students find themselves skipping meals and struggling to pay for healthy food.

If you find yourself in this position, Abby’s House, located on the first floor of the Werner University Center, provides basic needs resources for students who may be struggling with food insecurity. Additionally, the Food Pantry — located in the Welcome Center — provides students with food at no cost.

Even if the dining hall isn’t the only food option on campus, it should be working to provide a safer dining experience for all students who rely, or are forced to rely, on its services.

Contact the authors at howlentertainment@wou.edu and ethoma23@wou.edu

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