Nutritious foods hard to come by

Being able to cook for himself was a big factor for John Wagner when he decided to move off… Being able to cook for himself was a big factor for John Wagner when he decided to move off campus.

“I have some dietary restrictions, and it’s nearly impossible to have them and eat at restaurants,” Wagner said.

He also agreed that it is hard to have diet restrictions and eat at on-campus dining facilities.

Wagner, who said that he cooks 90 perecent of his meals, explained that he eats a lot of organic and vegetarian meals, which he usually slow-cooks throughout the day or uses a George Foreman grill to make.

Some students who live off campus may not feel like cooking, though.

“When buying a meal plan, you’re paying for conveniences,” campus dietitian Meg Mayer-Costa said. “When someone doesn’t purchase a meal plan, they still have to put effort into shopping and preparing the food.”

Mayer-Costa helps students who live on and off campus with planning a healthy diet. She tells them to think about what they would like to have and then about ways in which they can have balanced diets.

She stresses that students should offer time and attention to nutrition if they want to eat healthily. If you live on campus, you should eat at different campus eateries to get a balanced variety of foods and to keep your food intake interesting, so that eating the same foods repeatedly does not bore you, according to Mayer-Costa.

“It’s all about what you choose to eat,” agreed Chris Kuncio, who lives on campus. “If you eat burgers all the time, it’s not going to be healthy.”

Kuncio felt that, overall, he was eating fairly healthy.

Roommates Hannah Kauffman and Kara Snitger like cooking and eating food at their off-campus apartment more than they did eating campus food because they have more options and variety.

They also think their portions are easier to control, whereas when they ate at the Marketplace or other buffet places it was harder to do so because so much food was already conveniently prepared.

As far as convenience goes, though, Snitger does not mind cooking.

“I could have a meal plan, but I have my own kitchen,” Snitger said, explaining that cooking is easy, and it doesn’t take too long to do.

Kauffman is a self-taught cook, and Snitger learned from her mom and from working in restaurants.

On a daily basis, Kauffman and Snitger usually cook once and eat out once. They explained that on the weekends, however, they do not watch what they eat as much, because their time is not as scheduled as it is during the week and they have more free time to eat.

They also include running and other forms of exercise into their daily routines.

Campus fitness coordinator Mark Schafer explained that those who still eat unhealthy foods and exercise are engaging in a counterproductive process. He explained diet and exercise as “a candle that burns at both ends,” meaning that to get maximum results for health benefits, both must be practiced.

The Baierl Student Recreation Center, which is located in the Petersen Events Center, offers students the “Getting Fit at Pitt” program. The program includes free fitness assessments for students. They then meet with staff members, who are graduate students at the Department of Health and Physical Activity, to look over their tests scores and to set up an exercise routine for what the students personally need to work on. Students can be tested again to see if they have made any improvements and if their workouts need to be altered.

Schafer thinks that the sooner a young person begins to exercise, the more likely a routinely workout will carry over into the future when she has a professional life as well. He also feels that people should make the choice to eat healthily.

Schafer said that someone who wasn’t raised to eat right in the first place will probably be persuaded by the smells of tasty, inexpensive fast foods that are in abundance along Forbes and Fifth Avenues.