The years leading up to college are filled with people talking about the freshman 15, or the new freshman 50, and it scared me so much. At the same time, I thought that there had to be some way to avoid it because the food can't be THAT bad for you.
News flash, it is. At my school, there is a sandwich bar, salad and fruit bar, and then the normal food. There is also a lower cafeteria, which is made to order meals, which are on the unhealthy side, for the most part.
On a normal day, I will have a whole bowl of fruit to start off, because that is the only thing that is guaranteed to be okay. I never trust salad bars because I have a fear that something will be on the lettuce because I have gotten food poisoning from this before. There are some days when I have literally found myself only eating fruit because that has been the only healthy thing.
As I stroll through the cafeteria and see how 90 percent of it is unhealthy, I realized that the freshman 15 is a lot harder to avoid than I had thought. Everything is coated in grease or a whole bunch of sauce, and unless you go special order something, you aren't really going to get much that is healthy. Even the vegetarian and vegan section looks like there are about 700 calories per scoop.
This isn't about self-control, this is about options. I'm not saying that I am having trouble picking grilled chicken and veggies over the pizza and mashed potato bar. I'm saying that it seems like a slice of pizza might be healthier than chicken rice, and vegetables because of the amount of freaking grease that is on it. I CANNOT SURVIVE ON TWO BOWLS OF PINEAPPLE A DAY HERE. I'm just trying to live my life.
This is a letter to all colleges. Have some freaking options, please. I'm not trying to under eat, and I'm not trying to waste all my calories on one meal that should be healthy but it is not. All I'm asking is to eat more than fruit and cereal, and for your vegetables to be actually healthy. Oh, one more thing. Please stop burning the sandwiches. Thanks.
