Nutrition Bites Harvard

At the tailend of midterms and with the promise of vacation jut around the corner, Harvard students can barely balance their schedules, let alone their diets.

But while most Harvard students interrupted during dinner this week were discussing paper topics or the latest house gossip, a few select tables were engaging in an equally hallowed Harvard tradition: griping about the food.

Michael Hartl '96 says he chooses his dinner carefully. Although a casual observer might assume from Hartl's painstaking attention to nutrition that he is training for a decathalon or possibly a swimsuit competion, Hartl says he is merely keeping in shape. hall counter. Hartl, who admits he oftenchooses his dinner with an eye to Harvard DiningServices' (HDS) new "Nutrition Bites" nutrientcounters, says tonight's choice--spaghetti withmarinara sauce and meatballs, and a salad oflettuce and broccoli--is fairly standard.

But Hartl says he does not need the newnutrient counters to help determine his diet."This is not a rocket science," says Hartl, as heexplains his choice. "Broccoli, for example, is ahealthy food, everybody knows that."

Nutrition Bites HDS

In an attempt to bring students healthy foodswhich conform to USDA standards of healthy eating,Director of HDS Michael P. Berry says the newNutrition Bites program which hit dining hallslast month will teach students to make healthychoices about their diets.

"I hope that what's happened is that we'vetried to educate students about their choices,"Berry says.

This month HDS kicked off the "Healthy Options"segment of the Nutrition Bites program.

Each day several options on the lunch anddinner menus will be marked with a strawberryindicating they are part of the "Healthy Options"program.

Foods marked with a strawberry have less thanor equal to 350 calories per serving, less than orequal to 12 grams of fat per serving, less than orequal to 13 grams of protein per serving and lesstan or equal to 57 grams of carbohydrates perserving.

But some students worry that the emphasis onnumbers serves only to increase the worries ofalready weight-conscious students, withoutassuring them that some intake of the calories,fats, carbohydrates and proteins listed on thecards are essential to healthy eating.

At the outset of the nutrition program, HDSshared many of these concerns. To deal with them,Berry says he organized a series of discussiongroups centered around eating conreads about 300to 400 response cards each week, says the he hasreceived about 200 or 300 praising the programwhile only a handful have expressed concern.

Furthermore the Healthy Options program is onlyone facet of what he intends to be a largerprogram of healthy eating at Harvard, according toBerry.

Shirley Hung, a first-year graduate student atthe School of Public Health and the nutritionconsultant hired by Berry as part of his plan,says she has been visiting the houses duringdinner since October.

"[The Healthy Option] has to be taken incontext of the food pyramid," Hung says. "Youcan't really just take the entree and fit it intothe food pyramid. We're trying to promote thispyramid in terms of the most optimal eatinghabits."

Caloric Concern

Members of Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach(ECHO), a peer counseling group which deals withstudents' eating concerns, worked with Hung andBerry to help define eating concerns and to helpdefine eating concerns and to ensure that thecards would emphasize the percentage of fat in afood and not simply its fat content.

"I think that the fact people see a percentagefat [content] is important because that's whatpeople look at first," says Kristen VanAmburg '96,an ECHO counselor. "The point is not to scarepeople--I think fat is a necessary thing."

Above all VanAmburg cautions students to usemoderation in interpreting the numbers HDSprovides. "Generally I think the best idea is touse the information, but don't radically changeyour eating habit because of a severe phobia ofthe four grams of fat in the lasagna," she says.

ECHO co-president Christina Kalan '95 agreesthat it all depends on how a student approachesthe numbers.

"I think that the individual program is goodbut that for some one with eating concerns[Nutrition Bites] can fat which should be consumedis based on individual body type. "People don'tsee the food, they see the numbers," Langstonsays.

A disgruntled group of Lowell juniors areinterrupted as they are discussing theirnutritional malaise. "Harvard and nutrition seemto be irreconcilable," says one junior woman whoasked to be identified as anonymous anddiscontent.

Her dinner companions agree that thenutritional information definitely affects womenmore than men. "Women worry about [fat] 100 timesmore than men," says one woman.

A Man with a Plan

Some men take the fat content seriously. KevinB. Martin '96, a Quincy House resident, says hechoses his meals carefully based on the NutritionBites program.

"I take the calories and divide by 10," Martinexplains. "If the fat is greater than that, Idon't eat it."

Martin says he began calculationg fat contentto avoid gaining weight. "I wasn't going to eatanything that got most of its calories from fat,"he explains.

Despite his obsession with figures, Martin sayshe frequently resorts to eating cereal rather thanchoosing among the optional entrees. But thisdecision may have more to do with taste thannutrition, Martin confesses.

"I sometimes think the cereal here is morepopular than the entrees." Martin hypothesizes,because the food isn't very good."

Beef Pie Beef

Elie M. Finegold '95 says he doesn't worry asmuch about his nutrition as about getting a cleandish at dinner. "I'd just like to say that I getextra nutrition from the grime on the dishes,"Finegold says.

After a spirited discussion of "HealthyOptions", Finegold's Lowell House diningcompanions agree the dining hall does best when itsticks to simple fare.

One woman says she has been reduced to a stateof subsistance on tuna, which is her "only sourceof protein." Her neighbor sympatizes, explainingthat she "basically eat[s] hummus two times aday." All four says they prefer plain fare such asturkey cutlets and chicken breasts "when they'rewell cooked" to more exotic dishes like Beef Pieand South-western Lasagna.

"When they sit down at Harvard Dining Servicecentral planning back in Moscow," Matthew B.Botein '95 quips, "Do these ideas seem good tothem?

Lean Cuisine

Another questionably good idea from the hallsof HDS are the guidelines for incorporating"Healthy Options" into students' diets.

A recent HDS publication advises students toadd one choice from each of the followingcategories to the Healthy Choice Entree: Breads &Cereals, Vegetables, Fruits and Dairy.

One optional Healthy Choice meal, which readsalarmingly like a Weight Watchers menu, includes ahelping of Steamship of Beef, a slice of wholegrain bread, one cup of a leafy vegetable, a pieceof fruit and eight ounces of skim milk.

Still, Berry and HDS Coordinator of ProductionMichael Miller maintain that the option is justthat: an option. The menu has been altered to makeit healthier, but HDS realizes some menu items aredear to students' hearts even if they are bad fortheir cholesterol.

"I must tell you that Chickwich and things likethat are extremley popular but wouldn't fit [in ahealthy menu]," Berry says.

You Are What You Eat

A group of Quincy diners, Jenifer K. Kenser'95, Natalie W. Rusk '95 and Linette M. Venturea'95 say they are hardly fastidious about theirfood choices. Nevertheless, each woman says shehas a favorite food without which the dining hallwould not be the same.

Rusk says she subsists on the dining halls'Honey Mustard Sauce which she eats on "everything"and which she estimates has approximately twograms of fat.

Fenser says she eats a bagel every morningB-1