School of Management sophomore Deepika Sud said students tend to eat whatever is served to them instead of cutting portion sizes.
“[Students are] in a rush so they just [take] it as [it] is,” Sud said, “but if people knew that the smaller portions made that much of a difference I think people would definitely just ask for it.”
A study published in Health Affairs magazine in February suggested consumers would eat less if they received downsized potions.
Joan Salge-Blake, a nutrition professor at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said portion size is a big concern for the nutrition community right now.
“[It’s a] very hot discussion right now because portion sizes have increased over the years,” she said in a phone interview.
A bagel in the 1980s was half the size of its present-day counterpart, Salge-Blake said. The standard soft drink was 8 ounces as opposed to the contemporary 12-ounce cans or 20-ounce bottles found in most convenience stores and vending machines.
What you have on your plate is the most import factor contributing to healthy eating, Salge-Blake said.
“The first thing we want to do is shift the plate so what’s on it is proportionally correct,” Salge-Blake said.
The professor said with the Sargent Choice food program students have more options that are vegetable rich and contain more fresh fruit and more whole grains.
“Now it is up to the student to make sure that the plate that they choose and what they put on the plate is healthy,” Salge-Blake said. “It takes two to tango here, we can provide it but you have to choose to eat it.”
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Ilana Langsam said portion size might not be the answer to eating healthier.
“I don’t think its necessarily a matter of people would eat less if they had smaller portions,” she said. “I just think maybe less food would be wasted.”
The Environmental Protection Agency said Americans produced 34 million tons of food waste in 2010.
College of Communication junior Amanda Sabga said students often waste food in the dining halls, trying one of every new selection and throwing it all away after a few bites.
“Because you have unlimited options, I feel like people take advantage of that a lot . . . not realizing that they can’t do anything with that food that they waste,” Sabga said.
COM freshman Leora Kaufman said it might have something to do with the way students dispose of food at BU.
“Often when I am putting my trays away in the conveyer thing I see plates of food and it’s kind of disturbing,” she said. “Whereas you don’t see in the full sandwiches in the garbage.”
BU dining has diverted 788 tons of food from the waste stream in 2010 in an attempt to curb this problem, according to the Sustainability@BU website.
Salge-Blake said the amount of food students take makes a difference in how much food gets wasted.
“You take two rolls and then you’re not going to eat one of them, and then it gets tossed away,” she said. “That roll could have gone to someone that doesn’t have enough food.”
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