A healthy dish may be hard to come by

By Melissa Mongi
Senior Staff Member
February 21, 2007

“Fingers and fries, to go,” can be heard from about noon until free period ends in the Union. Chicken fingers, french fries, steak sandwiches, pizza and other friendly fried foods tempt us at every heated corner. Do I dare ask, what happened to real fruits and vegetables?

La Salle’s dining facilities have decided to remove the dreaded trans fats from our diet, but is the menu itself a plague on our health? At

La Salle, are we given healthy choices or are the health-conscious foods really heart attacks ready made? Even if there are choices to be made at all of the dining facilities, sometimes the best choices are dulled down in appearance, taste and price range.

Blue and Gold Commons (B&G) and Treetops Café try very hard to have healthier alternatives with the salad bar and cooked vegetables. Yet, it seems like those vegetables are either cooked in tubs of oil, or not cooked at all. There have been a number of times when my cooked broccoli from Treetops is far too crunchy to be called anything other than raw broccoli. Dumping the broccoli, what other choice do I have but to eat the very cooked french fries?

Likewise, the fruit options are slim to none. There are apples sporadically placed in both dining halls. When those can’t be found, there is always the sliced fruit section of the salad bars. Somehow, some way, a piece of something from another section of the salad bar always finds its way in this fruit option. While some might love cheddar cheese bits in their cantaloupe, I am not a fan. Once this option is out, I guess the next best choice is a cookie, right?

The Union food court does provide some healthier options. I discovered “crudités” last year in the Union Market. I decided that crudités in French must mean “aging raw vegetables with blue cheese dressing on the side.” Then there is the “veggie wrap,” which, in English, must mean “once-cooked vegetables now covered in a mystery sauce, now in a wrap.” Both options, in any language, are gross.

The health-conscious eating in the Union can always head to LaSallad Bowl, whichs offers up salads loaded with, what sometimes looks like, gallons of caloric dressings. Yet, even in this option, there are other fatty choices luring me in, and a dwindling food account budget that begs only to buy something less pricey, and not the salad. With these three options out the window, who wouldn’t head to Bits N’ Pizzas for a quick, cheap bite to eat?

Maybe trans fats aren’t the real issue on campus. Maybe a lack of good, healthy foods is the true problem. If there was a way La Salle’s dining areas could still provide unhealthy alternatives (for those among us who don’t care) with healthy alternatives (for those of us who do), I would be a happier student. When that day came and we had fresh fruits and vegetables cooked with no trans fats, and actually cooked, maybe grades would improve, too. On that glorious day, my body would thank me for nourishing it rather than making the cheaper, more enticing choice. Until that day comes, I’ll take fingers and fries to go. Oh, could I get the fake cheese stuff on the side, too? Thanks.

mongim1@lasalle.edu