In Starkville, some people crave The Little Dooey’s barbecue or Old Venice pizza. My dad yearns for omelets at Perry Cafeteria.
When he visits from Illinois, he wakes up at 7 a.m. on Fridays to go to breakfast at Perry.
I sleep in and enjoy dinner at Perry during the week. Also-unlike my dad-I prefer healthy food once in awhile. Eating a cheese, sausage and bacon omelet creates uneccessary tension between the scale and me.
Perry Cafeteria offers lighter breakfast fare such as yogurt or cereal, but it needs to revamp its menu and offer healthier food choices for dinner.
Perry’s Web site says that it has “special selections daily for vegetarians, vegans, and those on a fat or calorie restricted diet. Among those items are gardenburgers, vegetarian entrees and soups, as well as entrees and vegetables prepared without added fat.” Perry needs to call special attention to these foods in the cafeteria. If I had not checked the Web site, I never would have known they served such specialized food.
I typically eat salad, baked chicken, fruit and vegetables at Perry, but I had not discovered any other particularly healthy options. The cafeteria sets out lunch meat, bread and condiments at lunchtime so that people can make a simple sandwich, but employees take them away during dinner.
Spinach salad and baked chicken lose their appeal after you eat them several nights in a row. Perry’s menu entices people to eat high fat, high calorie foods, such as cheeseburgers, French fries and fried chicken, simply because it does not have an adequate selection of healthy food.
Perry says that it caters to the health-conscious and dietary-restricted crowd. However, it needs to make it more obvious.
People have the right to be informed about what they eat. Common sense tells us that certain foods do not exist on any diet, but seeing the nutritional data printed in black and white helps emphasize the unhealthiness of the food.
Perry does not offer brochures containing nutritional information anywhere in the building. Even if people can obtain nutrition information by searching elsewhere, it does not help much unless it is right next to the food that tempts to destroy your diet.
Perry can still serve macaroni and cheese, chili dogs and country fried steak and people will happily eat it, but they should also allow people more of a chance to give their arteries a break.
In spite of the fact that the United Health Foundation ranked Mississippi last in overall health in 2003, MSU students seem to care about their health. The overwhelming number of people crowding the Sanderson Center daily obviously care about their physical well-being.
If Perry widens its repetoire of healthy food and posts nutrition information about the food it serves, MSU students can trim the fat from their diets just as they attempt to slim their figures at the Sanderson. The cafeteria could easily offer more low fat, low cholesterol versions of some of the food it serves. Even Burger King touts low-carb, diet-friendly burgers and advertises ways to order their food without disrupting a diet.
If Perry starts stocking Egg Beaters, I might drag myself out of bed at the crack of dawn some Friday morning to join my dad for omelets.
Jenn Rousey is a senior English, French and communication major. She can be reached at [email protected].