Ole Miss Office of Health Promotions to Discuss Healthy Living

The Ole Miss Office of Health Promotions will have a meeting discussing how to eat healthy both on campus and around Oxford on Thursday night at 5:30pm. The meeting, which will take place in the Campus Walk game room, will give students information on how to eat healthily and maintain a balanced lifestyle.

According to many different studies, between 35 to 47% of college students are obese or overweight. Due to the lack of healthy options as well as limited time to exercise, college students are at high risk to gain weight and have weight related illnesses.

“The Union certainly encourages a bad diet,” Alyssa Willis, an Exercise Science junior, said. “They try to be healthy with some choices, but overall, everything has unhealthy options with empty calories, which will definitely add the pounds!”

Many students at Ole Miss give into the pitfalls of unhealthy food at the Union, whether it is due to having a meal plan, the convenience of the food, or the lack of care about what they are putting into their body.

“It’s my last year here and all I care about is graduating and getting a job,” Pat Mark, a Business Management senior, said. “My girlfriend tries to get me to eat healthy but it’s just so much easier and quicker to stop by the Union and pick up Chick-fil-a or pizza.”

A change needs to be made in food services at Ole Miss. Healthy living needs to be encouraged and students must stay informed about their choices and the impact that their choices make.

“I would like to see less processed foods,” Willis said. “I would like to see nutrition facts at the places to eat on campus. I would like to see more variety on campus. They make it easy to eat, but they don’t make it healthy to eat here. I don’t know how many calories I’m ingesting at any given meal in the Union.”

Others don’t care about the calories as long as there is food to meet their hunger.

“I think that people need to make their own choices,” Mark said. “If they don’t want to eat something here because it’s unhealthy, then they should prepare food for themselves before they come on campus. Personally, I go for convenience over nutrition and cost.”

The healthy living meeting will be at 5:30pm on Thursday, March 3^rd in the Campus Walk game room. Free Subway and Chick-Fil-A coupons will be available for those who attend.