Net nutrition aids students’ health efforts

 By: Roger Hoke

The University of Dayton Dining Services has now made it possible for any student to know exactly what they are eating at every on-campus dining hall.

The net nutrition website was started earlier this school year to allow students to view the nutrition of cafeteria food.

“So many students had been asking, so dining services bought the software to do this,” Joan Bauman, administrative dietitian for dining services, said.

The website works in a similar fashion to the app MyFitnessPal. Calories, ingredients and nutritional facts of every meal possibility on campus can be tracked using the net nutrition service, Bauman said.

“Every meal you get can be listed for all ingredients and you can see a nutrition label,” Bauman said. “If you want to keep track of everything that you eat in a day, you have the ability to do that.”

For students with allergies to any food, it is possible to see exactly what food you can eat in the cafeterias, and what food is not suitable.

“The website allows you to view options that you can eat if you have a food allergy,” Bauman said. “If you just check the box for eggs, nuts or meats, you will be able to see what options you can and cannot eat.”

According to Bauman, in the future students will be able to link their information from the net nutrition website to apps like MyFitnessPal.

The food options change on campus over the course of a semester, but Bauman assures students the service will be continually updated.

“Sometimes portion sizes and recipes change, but the website will be modified to accomodate this,” Bauman said.

With some food options being less healthy than others (a plate from the Kennedy Union pasta bar has over 1,000 calories)students can know how precisely how many calories they are taking in.

“Students want to be able to eat healthier, and now they have the option to choose,” Bauman said.

Bauman said that calories should not be all that students worry about when using the website.

“You can eat one big meal and have some calories left over for another if you are on a standard 2,000 calorie eating day,” Bauman said. “But it is important to know how many calories you should have in a day, as most males can eat more than females and no person eats the same as another.”

Not all students will use the net nutrition service, but the option for every student to use it is the reason net nutrition was created, Bauman said.

“I would not ever worry about how many calories are in my food,” junior engineering major David Bell said. “But I know other people will, so it’s good to have the option.”

The net nutrition service can be found at www.netnutrition.udayton.edu.