 "Photo: Eric R. Carter/Staff Photographer")
After the government released new dietary and exercise guidelines this year, the National Automatic Merchandising Association designed the Balance for Life campaign to fight adolescent obesity.
The University is already ahead of the game.
For several years now, Dining Services has retained vending machines that market healthier food choices, University nutritionist Peggy Policastro said. One-third of the items in the vending machines are low in fat, sugar and calories.
"We are on the cutting edge," Policastro said of the University's attempts to provide healthy options.
Balance for Life features a color-coded rating system for foods sold in vending machines. Schools that attain these new machines will be provided with instructional software packages outlining the nutritional content of the foods sold in the vending machines.
The main idea behind the campaign is to make individuals aware of their food intake and keep them from eating junk food.
But experts and students said Balance for Life falls short of real progress.
"I think it's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't deal with the real problem," said Richard Thiele, a Rutgers-Newark student. "Because schools lacked enough government funding, [they] brought in vendors who pay the schools for allowing them to sell their products. The result is vending machines that contain not so healthy foods."
"I think it would be beneficial to an extent," Rutgers College student Christopher Hodges said, "but I feel like it infringes on one's decision because it sends a message that one should choose one snack over the other because it's healthier."
The University wants to keep students aware of which foods are healthy.
"Education is a key component. I think that students simply need to learn what constitutes a good diet," said Assistant Professor Shawn Arent of the exercise science and sport studies department.
"People need to learn to make better dietary choices throughout the day and for their major meals, as opposed to just the snacks they choose," Arent said. "Students can eat well even at [fast food restaurants] as long as they learn what the proper choices would be."
In other attempts to make students aware of proper food choices, Dining Services provides nutritional breakdowns of food served in the dining halls, Policastro said. The University developed a Web site - http://food.rutgers.edu - where students can look up healthy choices and other aspects of the dining hall menus.
Policastro and the RU Healthy Dining Team - which is comprised of students majoring in nutrition - also keep students at the dining halls educated about what they are eating.
The RU Healthy Dining Team puts out a weekly newsletter covering issues of college life and eating at dining halls. It also runs activities aimed at making students aware of nutritional issues.
Along with Balance for Life, the University provides students with many facilities and activities that can help them maintain their bodies.
The growing problem with obesity is not one that is only affecting adolescents, but the whole country, Policastro and Arent said. Research has found obesity rates are increasing rapidly, and in order to control it, individuals need to take care of their bodies.
"It's important that students adopt a healthy lifestyle," Arent said. "This involves physical activity and healthy eating."
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