While looking at her computer, Nahir Alvarado grabbed a fried chicken nugget from the box beside her computer and put it in her mouth.
She is another student that chooses to eat while she studies at the Student Union to save on time. Alvarado is a Microbiology senior student at the University of Central Florida.
“We’re in school all day. Some of us can’t go home whenever we need to eat. I definitely learned that when I first started college; I need to look at what I’m buying in order to not gain too much weight,” Alvarado said.
Just like Alvarado, many other college students are having a hard time managing their time. For many students the most convenient option is to eat while they are on campus.
“Time management is something that affects college students. Up to this point someone was taking care of them. Their time, their cloths, and their food, what and when they ate. Once they’re in college they have to organize their time and they don’t know how,” Meghan Van Camp said.
Van Camp is a dietician and nutritionist that works at the University of Central Florida focusing on helping students in general and the University to have better and healthier choices.
“Most of the places in UCF don’t meet the daily recommendation someone should eat. Eating out in general would be high in sodium; It doesn’t matter the healthy labels they put,” Van Camp said.
Brittany Rozen, a former UCF student who lives on campus says that, “When I’m home I try to have good food, but because I’m so busy with school sometimes I run out of my good food, and I have to eat at the Union in the meantime.”
The United States legislature requires big restaurant chains to have a nutritional guide in the restaurants for people to see how many calories the food they’re buying has. Of all the restaurants in the Student Union only two of the restaurants, Burger King and Subway follow this rule. Chick-Fill-A is another restaurant that has the guide available if a person requests it.
“I think all the places should keep out—before you order your food—the nutritional guide, not at the register. I think that people would definitely look at that. I think UCF should definitely enforce that, because people would benefit from it,” Rozen said.
“I definitely think that at least they should try to show some information to the kids, or you know, everyone here so that they can know what they’re eating. I think that if people are given the information, they’ll definitely would want to learn, but when it’s not given to them, and they don’t know any better they do what they do best, which is getting what they feel like getting,” Alvarado said.
Van Camp is currently working on trying to help UCF balance their food choices. She would also like for UCF to enforce restaurants to have a nutritional guide for students to see.
“I’ve been working with the business end of it; this is where you get to the decade long debate. What I’m working with is for them to have a contrast in UCF, I want them to have one or two healthy options. You don’t want to drive business away, because that’s part of the money the union makes, so it’s kind of a tight road we walk,” Van Camp said.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture a person should filled have of their plate with fruits and vegetables for every big meal. A person between 19 and 30 years of age should not consume more than six teaspoons of oils in a 24-hour period.
Michael Puez, a music composition major thinks that it’s ok for the union to have a variety of restaurants, and to let people decide what they want to eat. He has never seen a nutritional guide before eating in any of the union’s restaurant, and he doesn’t think that people would care about that.
“If I have time in between classes I come here and eat, because it’s very convenient,” Kyle Aten said.
Some students know the importance of working out while at the same time balancing their nutritional health. Some of them are conscious of the high calorie foods they consume and they only choose to eat it once or twice a week.
“I usually eat at home, so when I eat out is usually once or twice per week,” Alvarado said.
