With midterms starting and the semester kicking into full gear, crafting a nutritious, well-balanced diet is often the last thing on Washington University students’ minds. With so much going on, it can be hard to put the time and energy into making sure one is eating food that provides the energy and substance they need.

Photo by Jaden Satenstein

In order to make things simpler for students, Dining Services launched Bear Balance 2.0 this semester, a combination of the former Bear Balance and Bear’s Choice (previously called Connie’s Choice) programs. Now featuring more “healthful” options than ever before in dining halls across campus, Bear Balance allows students to easily find meals that meet specified criteria, including being 100% whole grain and containing zero trans fat and less than a teaspoon of added sugar.

These meals are meant to be filling, nutritious and energizing while still tasting good. Some recent options have included African red potatoes with chickpea tagine in the Danforth University Center and special pasta and stir fry options in Bear’s Den.

Student Life sat down with University dietician Rebecca Miller, who has been working on enhancing the Bear Balance program since she started her position in June 2019, to discuss how college students should be thinking about what they eat.

Student Life: Many of the signs for the Bear Balance program refer to its meals as more “healthful” choices. What does “healthful” mean to you?

Rebecca Miller: I guess it depends on the person. I’m a big advocate, nutritionally, that each person is different and that we all need and want different things from our foods, right? So “healthful” for me is going to be incorporating what you love to eat. And are there ways to make it more filling for you, more energizing for you? Because really the goal here is to get through your four years of your study, five years of study. So you need to have good brain food and have good fats, good protein, good vegetables for antioxidants and good fiber from whole grains.

SL: What kind of feedback have you received from students about the program as well as meal options they want to see?

RM: I haven’t heard negative feedback for Bear Balance. I think we’re still kind of in the building, promoting phase of it, or re-promoting, that phase. Feedback that I hear when I meet with students one-on-one is more, ‘We want to grow plant-based protein, plant-forward meals, vegetarian, vegan-friendly options.’

SL: What do you think is the biggest misconception students have about what they eat? A lot of people see healthy eating as weight loss, so what do people not understand about what ‘healthy’ means?

RM: Healthy is kind of that term that some dietitians or some health professionals don’t like to use because it is so ambiguous and it doesn’t really have a clear definition…The biggest misconception that I see is that people label foods as ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ or ‘healthy’ versus ‘unhealthy.’ And I’m a big proponent that there are no bad foods for you. We can work into your personalized meal plan, nutrition plan, goals, any foods that you really like. And then we can sneak in ways for you to learn to like new foods or try them in a new way.

From social media, from peers, from growing up from high school pressures, family pressures, whatever it is…we start to label foods as, ‘I can’t have this, I can only have this. This is good. This is bad. Carbs are bad. Fats are bad. Animal-based proteins are bad.’ And so the goal here is balance.

SL: What are small ways students can improve their wellbeing in terms of food and nutrition?

RM: So small things, core things, nutritionally, would be to try to get yourself on a flexible meal schedule. So that means not skipping meals, because then you’re running on empty. Your gas tank has no gas or your body has no fuel from food. You need to fuel yourself, and that means eating roughly every three-ish hours after having a breakfast within the first hour or so of getting up in the morning. So that’s what people tend to not do. They tend to skip meals, they don’t eat breakfast, and so they’re basically expecting their body and their brain to run on no energy. So we need to give your body some energy.