Home > Insight

Auraria starving for better food options
By Zoë Williams
williamz@mscd.edu

For decades studies have shown that proper nutrition is important for maximizing brainpower. The food we eat has an enormous effect on cell function, transmission of information through the body and mood.

Despite the ubiquity of this knowledge, Auraria is equipped with the most unhealthy and disgusting food vendors imaginable. Aside from the Daily Grind, which will be gone come spring, students can choose between convenience store junk or fast food junk.

Doctors have found that hydrogenated fats, white breads, high-sugar drinks and artificial colors and sweeteners are “brain-drain” foods. All these items are in high stock in the Tivoli food court, accompanied by oil and saturated fats. Drink fountains are stocked with Coke, a beverage that contains 10 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounces.

In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, a Taco Bell employee revealed that a majority of food preparation for menu items like beans, meats and sauces involves either adding hot water to dehydrated products or heating plastic bags in vats of boiling water. McDonald’s adds chicken flavoring to its nuggets to ensure they taste like a bird and admits that the Quarter Pounder – the burger that takes a third of your day to walk off – is 48 percent water. All the bagels from Einstein Bros. are shipped frozen from facilities in California or Indiana run by the New World Restaurant Group. This company produces bagels for nearly 650 Einstein Bros., Noah’s, Manhattan Bagel, Chesapeake Bagel Bakery and New World Coffee locations.

Subway advertises to diet-conscious individuals with their buddy Jared Fogle, who lost tons of weight eating Subway sandwiches in an attempt to convince us that Subway food is healthy and fresh. The truth is that Fogle ate about 1,000 calories of Subway food a day and had a strict exercise regimen that helped him lose weight. Dietician critiques state that anyone consuming that few calories with rigorous exercise would lose weight with or without Subway. Besides, a sandwich from Subway with cheese, mayo, oil and meat is filled with sodium, cholesterol and saturated fats.

Nevertheless, there are far more disturbing things dished up in the first floor of the Tivoli than fats, sodium and sugar.

In 2005, California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against numerous fast food and junk food companies, including Frito Lay and McDonald’s, for having the chemical acrylamide in their foods without warning customers. Acrylamide is a byproduct of food production processes, such as frying potatoes, and is considered a carcinogen in California.

Carcinogens cause cancer and are found more frequently in food than most Americans would probably like to know. For instance, about 95 percent of human exposure to the carcinogen dioxin is from the consumption of animal products such as meat and dairy.

While many folks celebrate McDonald’s use of American cows for its burgers, this decision is far from celebratory. An investigative report of California stockyards found that in 1994 alone, eight million pounds of poultry manure was fed to cows raised for beef. All that fecal matter was digested and turned into tissue later be served up on plates in all-American restaurant chains.

Wok and Roll and Freshen’s Smoothies maintain a lower profile, but they are not ethical companies in the least. These restaurants are owned by food giant Sodexho, which also owns Einstein Bros. and Quick Zone. Sodexho serves up food in schools and prisons across the nation, as well as holding a stake in the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America. The company has a long reputation of racial discrimination, as shown in a 2005 court case resulting in an $80 million settlement.

I cannot justify spending money on frozen fruit thrown in a blender or generic frozen vegetables on rice in the first place.

Our food options are selected in part by our two student-elected representatives to the Auraria Board. They pick restaurants according to their plan for operation, food plan, financial package, design and resources. There are no criteria for quality of food, company ethics or even what students actually want on campus.

While state law prevents the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board representatives from showing preference to a specific business when selecting new tenants for spaces, our student government has the ability to draft a preferred contracting policy that would ensure that nutritional quality and company responsibility are incorporated in the decision process. The University of Colorado at Boulder did it, and we can too.

Either talk to your student government or settle for more terrible food choices that you didn’t want in the first place.