Higher education institutions must make it possible for students to eat healthy.
As students transition from their homes to colleges or universities, they become the sole decision-makers of their nutrition choices. However, despite wanting to choose healthy options on campus, most of them can’t. One major reason is that cafeterias and dining halls on university campuses are often laden with fried, unhealthy options for students.
A large Canadian national survey of university food-service customers found that campus dining facilities still need to do more to encourage students to eat more healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.
This is worrisome on many levels, the most consequential being the impact on students’ long-term health and academic performance. Since post-secondary education is typically the first time students are independent and responsible for their decision-making, food consumption habits built during this time can last the rest of their adult lives. Second, the quality of one’s diet affects their memory, energy, ability to focus, and even mental health. If universities and colleges don’t take responsibility for students’ nutrition seriously, they jeopardize not only their health but also academic performance and future career prospects.
For these reasons, higher education institutions in Canada such as George Brown Polytechnic must take active measures to fix nutrition on campus.
Colleges must first and foremost work with registered dietitians to build campus dining menus. Some institutions are already pioneering this change. University of British Columbia (UBC), for instance, has partnered with full-time dietitians and culinary experts to create its All Access Dining model aimed at improving student health and well-being. It allows students to make more mindful food choices and enjoy a wide variety of foods increasing their nutrition and satisfaction.
Partnering with a dietitian or having a resident dietitian must be the first step institutions follow. This allows colleges to understand nutrition from an expert’s perspective and offer options key to their students’ growth while also meeting standard dietary requirements. For example, research from Protein Chefs, a high-protein meal delivery service, indicates that muscle protein synthesis is maximized around 20–25 grams of protein per meal — a benchmark many dining hall entrées fail to meet.
Secondly, such institutions should make it easier for students to choose highly nutritious meals as their default. Right now, healthy options are often seen as a “nice to have” and cost extra. Many times, even plant-based protein sources are priced at a premium, which discourages students from choosing this option, even when plant-based protein sources can supply all essential amino acids. This can make it impossible for cost-conscious students to eat healthy, forcing them to rely on the cheaper but unhealthy choice. This should be reversed. It can be achieved by partnering with local Canadian vendors to supply nutritious, high-protein and high-fibre varieties to students as the go-to choice. Students should also be given the flexibility to design their own meals to some extent rather than sticking to a fixed menu.
Finally, nutritional awareness must be a priority for colleges. By hosting workshops, events, and giving students free access to in-house nutritionists and dietitians who can answer their meal-related questions and suggest solutions for more balanced and nutritious diets, colleges and universities would make the biggest long-term contribution to student health.
Colleges, where students spend years, bear the quintessential responsibility of supporting student health. This is a privilege that must be taken seriously to help students build healthy meal and nutrition habits that will stay with them for years to come. By partnering with registered dietitians, offering high-protein, high-fibre healthy meals as the main choice for students, and giving them complimentary access to qualified experts who can help them make informed decisions about their health and nutrition, higher education institutions can make an incomparable and highly valuable difference in students’ lives.
Submitted by: Ronneil Ramlal
Ronneil Ramlal is the founder of Protein Chefs, a Canadian high-protein meal-delivery service.
