STORY BY MOLLY ADAMSON
If you’re a student here at Drake University, you’ve probably had a meal at Hubbell. You’ve probably had meals you really enjoyed, and meals that might not have been your favorite. Did you ever consider whether or not what you shoveled into your mouth was healthy or not?
In my opinion piece from last week, I wrote briefly on the subject of Hubbell Dining Hall and Quad Creek Cafe, discussing the after effects some students suffer from. I briefly touched on the idea that food being served to us might not be helping us all take off those few extra pounds. This week, I’m leaving Quad alone, and focusing my attention on Hubbell. I also did some research. Be prepared to be hit with some hard-hitting facts about your food.
I gathered my research from Sodexo’s Drake website. Sodexo provides the food services for Drake. On this website, I clicked the link that talked about Hubbell. The Hubbell page has a link titled Health, and on that page you can find something called the Nutrition Calculator.
With this tool, you can search anything that Hubbell serves, and see all of the nutrition facts. That delicious cheese pizza? 250 calories. Those mouth-watering 7-layer bars? An astounding 570.
The soups, which are perfect for the Iowa winter soon to come, were relatively slimming. Most of them were under 100 calories. These may be a healthier choice.
Salads are something you can’t really look up on the calculator and get an accurate answer. It all depends on how you build it. When building a salad, don’t go crazy with the dressing.
The website also had some interesting tips to live by. Take two trips through the line. Look at all the options, and then make your decision. When you do it all in one trip, you often grab everything that looks good, and end up with too much on your plate.
They also suggest getting a “real meal.” Don’t just get a bunch of little things. They suggested something like getting a soup, a salad, and then a main dish.
Of course, eat more fruits and vegetables — those are always great.
Sharing also helps in the attempt to not gain weight. See something you want to try, but are not sure if you’ll really like it? Share it with a friend, and get something you know you’ll like. This way you don’t eat double the amount of food.
Our schedules may get crazy. You might have three classes in a row, which doesn’t give you a lunch break in between. Some students don’t get to eat until 4 p.m. If this applies to you, make sure you bring snacks. Most professors are completely OK with food in the classroom. Just don’t make a mess. Snacking helps so when you actually get time to eat a full meal, you don’t over do it.
When you do go to Hubbell, even though it is buffet style, hold off on that second serving. Wait 15-20 minutes to make your decision about more food. Your stomach can digest the food you’ve already ate in that time, and then you can make that important decision.
So basically, yes, Hubbell can be healthy. It’s all about moderation. As long as you don’t choose the pizza or any fried foods every single time you eat there, you shouldn’t be fine.
There are also sources available to help you make healthy decisions. There’s the website I previously mentioned, MyPlate.org, and it helps lots of people with their food choices. You can enter what you ate for the day, or what you are thinking about eating, and it will tell you how many calories you probably took in, and how much of your daily values you’ve also had.
Hopefully this article will help you make the right food choices. After all, who wants that freshman 15?