Campus Current
Monday, September 24, 2012
Health 7
The King, The Clown and The Lunch Lady By Sarah Jones Staff Writer On average, college students consume fast-food meals two to three times a week. According to Newsweek, 30 percent of college students are considered overweight by the American Medical Association. Over recent years, the FDA has become strict about promoting health in fast food restaurants. McDonald’s has revamped it’s kids menus, replacing half of the fries with apple slices. Taco Bell and Wendy’s have been adding healthier choices and trying to be more health-conscious chains. Recently, New York has passed a law making large soda proportions unavailable on street venues and in restaurants. “You can’t eat fast food and be healthy,” said Tara Witten, an Anne Arundel Community College Fitness Center Specialist. “Every day you decide to be healthy or promote disease.” Witten says what you eat directly impacts your daily health. There are dozens of restaurants and fast food chains along Ritchie Highway, close to AACC. Yet there are hundreds of much healthier options in the school’s cafeteria alone. Almost all orders are customizable, whether be different bread or a vegetarian option. Most of the grab-and-go items, such as sandwiches and pastas, are generally less than 300 calories. Although our cafés and the campus cafeteria offer a great amount of healthy snacks and meals, it is more common to see a student pick up a chocolate chip muffin in the morning, or a bag of chips for lunch from the vending machine instead of going for the healthier alternative. “Our school as a whole does a great job [to promote health otherwise,]” said Witten. Not many students are aware of the fitness opportunities offered by the school. Besides the credit and non-credit classes such as kickboxing, water aerobics, zumba, and weight training, the school’s fitness center is open for free use to students 17 hours a week. “It is underutilized,” said Witten. As far as the cafés go, Witten says it can always improve and
accommodate healthier options. That is exactly what Wanda Grace, general manager of AACC’s dining services, has set out to do this year. “One of my goals is to put fourth 20 new healthy options,” said Grace. The dining services’ menus are constantly changing from year to year, keeping up with the market trends and dietary restrictions. It is also one of Grace’s goals to be able to post nutritional information. “Since we opened 12 years ago, I have made most of the menu creations,” said Grace. “We work as a team.” Most soup recipes are made with water instead of oil and butter, and the fat and salt contents are kept down. Only white meat is used. The dining services currently orders bread from four different bakeries, buys doughnuts and muffins from others. “We buy the best on the market,” said Grace. “We are really trying to give the best quality at the best price we can.” However, Chris Noon, a first year culinary student, doesn’t think AACC is a very health-conscious campus, especially in the cafeteria. “I’ve had the chicken nuggets,” said Noon. “They’re cold and not very good.” Noon says having nutritional fact displayed about the campus food would be very beneficial. “There’s a lot of people that are on strict diets so it would be best for them to see what they’re eating,” said Noon. Nutritional values of most of the soups, as well as most of the small snack such as cookies and jello, are already displayed. Being able to display nutritional information for everything offered is a tedious task, given the wide variety of options. “It is going to be an ongoing process. Just building that profile for the menu, then breaking it down into servings [is a lot],” said Grace. However, the information is available to students who would like it thru Grace. Email: wlgrace@aacc.edu 410.777.2254 SUWB 112
Thinking abouT Transferring? ADUlt UNDergrAD UAte | grADUAte PrOgrAMS | WOMeN'S COllege
Notre Dame of Maryland University makes it easy to transfer credits and complete your degree on time. We offer premiere programs in education, nursing, business and more.
FIRST THURSDAYS: Information Session for prospective adult undergraduate, graduate and transfer students. Learn about our flexible evening and weekend programs for adults, as well as financial aid, scheduling and transferring credits. Thursday, October 4, 5:30 p.m., Fourier Hall 410-532-5500 or ndm.edu/FirstThursdays
Options include: • Undergraduate Women’s College • College of Adult Undergraduate Studies, for women and men Students pursuing education degrees can finish at AACC. For a smooth transition and a respected degree, consider Notre Dame.
WOMEN'S COLLEGE: Fall Open House for prospective women's college students. Tour our beautiful campus, meet the admissions team, get some great tips on the admissions process and financial aid 101. Saturday, September 29, 8:30 a.m. 410-532-5330 or ndm.edu/visit
4701 north Charles street | baltimore, Maryland 21210 | ndm.edu
Notre Dame of Maryland University is a member of the AACC University Consortium.
N e w
A s s o c i A t e
D e g r e e
s c h o l A r s
A w A r D
You can earn your bachelor’s degree at Frostburg State University for close to community college tuition rates!
? s w e n e Heard th
Maryland community college graduates with high academic standing may qualify for deeply discounted tuition through the new FSU Associate Degree Scholars Award: • worth up to $1,250 per semester • for students with A.A., A.S. or A.A.T. degrees (and some A.A.S. degrees)
• minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA required • must enroll full time at FSU and maintain a 3.0 GPA Study close to home. FSU offers a B.S. in engineering (electrical concentration) at AACC Arundel Mills Regional Higher Education Center.
F R O S T B U R G , M D ~ w w w. f r o s t b u r g . e d u For more information, call 301.687.4201