- Alex Barstead,
Senior international business major
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Graduate student Thanseh Rajandran checks the nutrition value of his meal at the NetNutrition kiosk in the dining facility. (Photo by Sarah Frazelle / Staff Photographer) |
When eating in a dining center, choosing healthy options can be challenging. Without the opportunity of seeing nutrition labels and knowing exactly what ingredients are going into menu items, it is easy to consume more calories and fat than intended.
At Illinois State University, this is not the case. Recently, Watterson Dining Commons underwent changes to the building. Dianne Feasley, assistant director of Campus Dining Services and registered dietitian, said new additions were added.
“The renovation expanded the facility so that venues are no longer centrally located,” Feasley said. “Students can now access food more easily.”
Not only did Watterson Dining Commons’ décor undertake a renovation, the food and menus did as well. By adding more space to the dining center, additional and extended venues are available, creating diverse options for food.
“Options include salad bar, fresh fruit, yogurt bar, assorted cereals, grill, deli, pizza, pasta, wok station, Tex Mex station, home-style and Fresh Bites,” Feasley said.
“The newest venues are the pasta station and the salad tossing station.” Feasley said.
Fresh Bites, which survived Watterson Dining Commons’ renovations, is targeted to those who strive for healthy eating habits. The venue has a menu based on the top 25 healthy food groups, which includes grilled fish, vegetables and whole grains.
Fresh Bites is not the only way Campus Dining Services is taking a stance on healthy foods. Low fat options have started making their way into daily menus.
“We look at individual recipes and try to do our best not to add unnecessary fat or salt,” Feasley said. “We use trans fat free fryer oil, and provide low fat cottage cheese and low fat yogurt.”
Catering to those with special diets is also a way Campus Dining Services tries to help students.
“We work closely with a number of students who require gluten free diets and to those who have allergies,” Feasley said. “We not only provide information regarding foods to avoid but also provide a variety of specialty foods that allow them to have more variety.”
According to Feasley, gluten free bread, bagels, tortillas, pasta, pizza, and macaroni and cheese are some of the options available for those who must stick to a strict diet.
Producing these selections helps create variety in strict diets that can sometimes become lifeless. Alex Barstead, senior international business major, said he enjoys the vegetarian selection.
“I always order Boca burgers from the grill,” Barstead said. “Those and veggie burgers are made to order, but you have to ask for them. I didn’t think I would like them but after the first time I ate a Boca burger I was hooked.”
Boca, black bean and garden burgers are all offered. Feasley said if you ask for one, the chefs cook a vegetarian option on a vegetarian grill, which has not been touched by meat products.
If students do not have a special diet but are still watching what they eat, nutritional values are available to them. Via the Campus Dining website, nutritional values can be accessed through a program called NetNutrition.
“This software program publishes our menus to the Campus Dining website,” Feasley said. “It also provides nutrition information and gives customers the ability to view the nutritional value of a meal that they have selected.”
By selecting multiple different items, NetNutrition will calculate full nutritional values for an entire meal.
Through the website, students can also see what foods are offered for that particular day.
“I always go to the website before I eat at the dining centers,” Barstead said. “I like to know if what I want to eat is healthy or not. I wish they had this when I lived in the dorms.”