Monday, September 14, 2009
Op Ed topic paragraph
There are many things that are included in “being healthy”. Eating right and exercising are key contributors to that. The age range of college students is said to be the healthiest years of your life. I am going to talk about how most college students do have the will to be healthy by eating right and exercising; at the same time it is hard for them to actually follow through with these goals given their specific circumstances. There are many factors that are sometimes not considered such as: priorities, time, and money. School work or social lives tend to take precedence over these side goals of being healthy. Time is very limited with the busy schedules of people and so squeezing in an exercise doesn’t happen or having to grab an unhealthy food on the go can affect their healthy lifestyle. Another thing is healthier foods are often more expensive than unhealthy foods. For example: it’s easy for a starving college student to not want to pay an extra dollar or two for the food that has less calories, or the reduced fat kind of a product, also making it easier for them to purchase things that are cheap in bulk like Macaroni & Cheese or Top Ramen, because every cent matters to a college student. Over eating and under eating is also common among college students as a result of anxiety or other stress related disorders. As you can see, it is hard for a college student to be “completely healthy”, but most of us are trying our best.
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This might be a hard topic to be specific on. I think that if you concentrate on how the cougareat doesn't offer any healthy options and how it definately contributes to the obesity factor in college students you might be better off instead of getting so broad on your topic, beacuse you could easily write a 15 page paper on it.
ReplyDeleteDevri, here's one argument I could pull out of your post--BYU should offer cheaper healthy food. You could talk about how the nutrition department does offer the service Evita mentioned, but this is not enough. Maybe do a survey of vending machines and the different eateries on campus and talk about the absence of healthy food or low prices.
ReplyDeleteAnother possible argument--BYU should provide more opportunities for students to get exercise. Whether it is a wider course offering, more access to workout facilities, or increased exercise-related social activities.
Those are just a couple thoughts.
I think that if you added comments or interviews from people who are able to live a healthy lifestlye while in college, that would prove your claim. Also, what might be really impressive is if you talked to the nutrition department or a nutritionist and asked how they would create certain meals and schedules for exercise with the time and means of college students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the others in that your topic is very broad. If you could narrow it down, like to focus on avaliable healthy food options or the lack of such options, or perhaps shift the topic if you find more evidence towards how the time and money constraints result in eating disorders- or another area- so long as its narrower, would make it easier to write on.
ReplyDeleteAs for healthy food choices, I know for those students using Diners Platinum they can buy groceries and cook their own food- which can be healthy or unhealthy as admittedly my dormmates and I have eaten alot of canned food and mac and cheese lately.
For Helaman Halls, Im under the impression that many students there have the Cannon Center/Commons Meal Plan Tickets (this isnt the right name- its something close to this though- you can look it up via Route Y and meal plan options) which basically enables them to only eat in the Cannon Center. I ate there once, and felt fat just looking at the immense amount of food. Its like a buffet every single meal- breakfast lunch dinner. They dont have kitchens so cooking would be a bit harder for them to do if they wanted to make healthier food.
Not saying that the Cannon Center's food isnt healthy- they offer salad and stuff, but the alternating meals still seem a bit unhealthy, though I dont know for sure. Research would need to be done.
Hope I was able to help some, and that my rambling isnt too useless.
I agree with everyone else; the topic is very broad but it is very interesting and so true in every aspect.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could narrow it down to the food served at the Cougareat. Most people don't have a meal plan (I think, you should check this) or don't want to go down to the Cannon Center because it is kinda far away from where classrooms are and so the most known and common option is the Cougareat. The food isn't that great and the price is super expensive (a salad is almost $5!!).
I don't know if this would help but I realized that the vending machines (in the WIDB) have an "green apple sign" below every snack that is considered healthy. I think this is a good thing because it informs about the best options before you buy something.