Brain Food or Plain Food Being a college student may not be what it is all cracked up to be in the cinema. Juggling things such as working multiple part time Jobs, meeting classwork deadlines, and various other responsibilities creates psychological and sometimes physical stress, ultimately tending to get in the way of one’s nutritional needs. When one does come to see that they have been neglecting their body of nutritional needs, they are faced with an ultimatum.
The choice to be made is whether to give in to the cheap, and hunger satisfying but inadequate nourishment or to spend a little more for some roper nourishment that your body surely needs. In Philosophy Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah’s essays “Making Conversation” and “The Primacy of Practice”, the author states the term cosmopolitanism to describe an ability to connect with and accept others on a multicultural level through creating conversation both locally and on the global scale, creating a deeply interconnected world.
In Journalism Professor Michael Pollan’s essay “The Animals: Practicing Complexity’, Pollan gives a detailed visual description of Polyface Farm that ultimately exposes a larger and more ultifaceted ecological and economic system, while also discussing feedback systems and food supply chains. In a study by John Todorovich, thirty four college freshmen were enrolled in a new student orientation course taught by graduate nutrition sstudents. The course consisted of five one hour focus groups where the sstudents were taught valuable nutrition information while their reactions and the effectiveness of the course was simultaneously measured.
A conversation between sstudents and faculty alike here at Florida Atlantic University on the topic of how to eat better and how to bring more nutritional foods to the campus needs to be had. Educating everyone on campus about what one should be eating to be healthy and live an active lifestyle and what the many benefits of eating correctly are will transform this habit of eating better into a domino effect, passing on the habit to others, creating a complex system. For starters, the food and drink options to one at Florida Atlantic University are anything but ideal for the health conscious person.
The Food Court alone is packed full of unhealthy yet apealing options such as Wendys, Pizza Hut, Chinese food and Quiznos. Aside from the food court, there are also several coffee shops offering astries and small hut-like stands offering energy drinks and candy bars for those on the go. For the sstudents that reside on the campus, as well as any others who decide pay the absurd fee, can eat in the dining hall which offers more nutritional food options, as well as the food being freshly made.
In order for sstudents to perform well in class, the body needs certain nutrients, which the current dining options on campus to not provide conveniently or economically. “Relations are what matter most, and the health of the cultivated turns on the health of the wild” (Pollan 292). This uote derived from Michael Pollan’s essay on Polyface farms illustrates that the Junk food people in todays society are ingesting is not only negatively affecting one’s own health and those around them, but the animals we are ingesting as well. Pollan displays how everything eventually in one way or another ends up in a cycle.
So if we are Duylng Incre01Dly cneap processed poorly. 000, our livestock Is eatlng even more Moreover, the sooner the change in the food available on campus, the better. Currently, I am taking a nutrition class at FAU, and as my professor was speaking of hat a balanced diet consists of, I came to the realization that many of the nutrients mentioned I would not be able to find on campus at all. Essentially, the human body needs certain vitamins and nutrients that fast food Just simply does not offer to us. There are many components to having a nutritional diet.
The first component includes three serving of dairy such as cheese and milk. The second component is foods such as oatmeal and brown rice, neither of which can be found in the Food Court on campus. The third component of a nutritious diet is four servings of fruits and vegetables, which can be pricy to obtain on campus. The fourth and perhaps most important dietary component is protein such as lean chicken and lean turkey, as well as tofu, a vegetarian alternative which I have yet to see to see on campus. Other colleges have already made this leap of enhancing the nutritional value of the food offered on campus.
For example, some colleges are implementing salad bars. What can also speed us the process of this change while simultaneously educating sstudents of how to eat better. This change can be by creating more nutrition courses at school and offering free literature on how to make healthier food choices on campus. Currently, the only food and nutrition class offered at Florida Atlantic University is once a week on Mondays from seven to ten at night. The benefits of offering healthier choices at Florida Atlantic University are significant.
In order for the brain to function properly and to its full capacity, proper nutrients are needed. Loss of energy and focus are two factors that cause sstudents to purchase pricy and potentially harmful energy drinks and supplements. Eating a proper and healthy diet can avoid this need altogether. Those sstudents who eat right tend to perform exceptionally better in their courses. Receiving sustained energy that asts for hours by the food one eats is a much better alternative than sugary energy drinks that result in one crashing after a period of high energy.
As well as increased energy, a benefit of eating healthy is preventing harmful diseases. Heart disease is at an all-time high in the United States, as well as many cancers that have been found to be prevented by nutritional mearns. Obesity in America is also a major concern, with roughly thirty five ppercent of adults being obese. A Correspondingly, by adding more nutritious food options to the University campus, the health of sstudents is not the only variable affected. These sstudents may go on to learn dietary information that they can then go on to share with their families and friends.
Eating habits are also primarily learned in adolescence, so with proper nutrition being implemented to college sstudents now, they’re learned exceptional eating habits can be carried on tthroughout their lifetime. “It was all of a biological piece, the trees and the grasses and the animals, the wild and the domestic, all part of a single ecological system” (Pollan 292. ) In this quote, Pollan describes Polyface Farm as a whole ecological coordination, in which one variable of the farm could not e affected without affecting another variable.
The FAU campus can be thought of ssimilarly, spicing up the dining locations on campus to provide healthy foods will cause a chain like reaction, causing sstudents to do better in classes and have more energy to get tasks completed ana partlclpate In campus actlvltles. A001ng nealtnler foods as opposed to fast food will also reinforce fast food companies to expand their menu’s to include healthier options, and improve some of their existing menu choices. In Kwame Appiah’s essay, a message is implemented that a change or movement can be brought on by a single person, making conversation with peers.
This message relates to the nutritional food choice movement I would like to entice my peers in. Word of mouth is the initial step to creating a movement with much potential. Earlier in my paper I noted how poor the actual education of valuable nutrition information is on the college campus. A Journal newarticle I found through the Florida Atlantic University Library website displays information on an observation of college freshman willingness to learn nutritional information. John Todorovich and his colleagues created a nutrition course module program for incoming college sstudents with poor eating habits.
Following the nutrition course, five major themes emerged showing how useful the course was after all. The first theme Todorovich noted was the acquisition of knowledge on topics like portion sizes, different food groups, how to choose healthier snack items, and how to prepare small yet healthy meals for oneself. The study indicated that mostly all sstudents involved learned a significant amount of nutrition information. The second theme of the study was the behavior change of the sstudents involved.
Most sstudents vowed to change their poor eating habits, except for a handful of stubborn male sstudents who stated they would be eluctant to change their eating habits unless is was absolutely necessary. On the brighter side, the vast majority of sstudents agreed to start preparing more healthy meals for themselves as opposed to fast food, and to eliminate soft drinks like soda from their diet. In the third theme of the study, it was found that the informal and wittiness of the college graduate nutrition sstudents added to the effectiveness of the course.
The sstudents liked being able to relate to the nutritional battles that instructors went through. The final theme of the study is the effective aspects that helped the sstudents learn this information. Because most of the sstudents lacked proper measuring devices in their dorms, portion equivalents like a baseball or deck of cards were used to indicate proper portion size. In addition, the sstudents were also shown food models and played interactive nutrition games quizzing what they have learned.
With all things considered, the health of college sstudents at Florida Atlantic University and likely the majority of college sstudents abroad are at risk. For many college sstudents, after being cooked for while at home, it can be tricky and nearly impossible to resist the wide selection of unhealthy food options. Some sstudents actually become overwhelmed with all of the fast food options, and resort to buying food from multiple places. A combined effort from both faculty and sstudents will be needed in order to successfully alter the diet FAU has to offer. To be a prosperous college student, maintaining a healthy body and mind is crucial.
Maintaining a healthy body weight, strengthening your immune system, increased mental alertness, and a general feel good sensation tthroughout the body can be achieved by simply eating healthy foods. “I’m using the word conversation not only for literal talk but also s a metaphor for engagement with the experience and the ideas of others” (Appiah In tnls quote aerlvea Trom “l ne Prlmacy 0T Practlce”, Applan empnaslzes tnat “conversation” is not limited to conversing with a friend, but can also be thought of as starting a movement or implementing an idea in the thoughts of others.
