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NEWS / WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Fast food still popular, unhealthy
BY KELLY STRODA
kstroda@kansan.com
College students like things fast and cheap especially when it comes to food.
specially when they eat food. "I'll all about cheap food," said Bailey Patton, a senior from Benton. She said she probably eats fast food about once a week.
Patton's not alone.
Patton's not alone.
According to a survey in 2006 by Pew Research Center, 73 percent of Americans said "convenience" was their number one reason for eating junk food. In the same survey, 59 percent of ages 18-29 said they ate a meal
from a fast food restaurant at least once a week
from a fast food restaurant at least once a week.
Ann Chapman, dietitian with the Wellness Resource Center at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said understanding why fast food is unhealthy is simple. Most fast food is usually high in calories, fat and sodium.
high in calories, fat and sodium. Kurt Schieszer, a freshman from Mission, said he also eats fast food about once a week.
"I know it's terrible for you," Schieszer said. He said he usually eats fast food because it's convenient and inexpensive.
Chapman said there are ways to make fast food slightly better for you.
"Keeping things simple
can help," Chapman said.
can help, Chapman said.
That means mixing sauces such as mayonnaise or ordering hamburgers instead of cheese burgers. At McDonald's, ordering a McDouble without cheese saves 50 calories, for example. Ordering a side salad from the dollar menu instead of fries is also a healthier option, Chapman said.
Plus, Chapman said, if a student is craving fast food, he or she could order a kid's meal instead of a regular meal to get smaller portions.
— Edited by Anna Nordling
- Crunchy Taco — 170 calories, 10g fat
- Soft Taco — 210 calories, 9g fat
- Crispy Potato Soft Taco — 280 calories, 14g fat
- Bean Burrito — 370 calories, 10g fat
- Beefy, 5-layer burrito — 560 calories, 22g fat
MCDONALDS
- Side salad, no dressing — 20 calories, 0g fat
- Fruit 'N Yogurt parfait — 160 calories, 2g fat
- McChicken — 360 calories,
16g fat
16g fat 390
- Small french fries — 380 calories 19g fat
- McDouble — 390 calories, 19 q fat
BURGER KING
- Onion rings—150 calories, 8g fat
- Spicy Chicken Sandwich — 150 calories, 30g fat
calories, 6 g fat
460 calories, 30g
Side garden salad — 140
- Side garden salad - 140 calories, 6 g fat
- 4-piece chicken tenders
- 180 calories, 11g fat
- Buck Double — 410 calories,
22g fat
SUBWAY
- Footlong Veggie Sub —
- 460 calories, 5g fat Footlong Oven Roasted
- Footlong BLT — 720 calories. 26g fat
- Footlong Oven Roasted Chicken — 640 calories, 9g fat
- Footlong Cold Cut Combo — 820 calories, 32g fat
- Footlong Meatball汉
ana — 1,160 calories, 46g
fat
- 820 calories, 32g fat
· Footlong Meatball Mari-
information gathered from nutrition information available on each restaurant's website.
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Joe Stogstill, a junior from Lawrence, participates with the Lawrence Fair Food group in a candle-light vigil in effort to urge the supermarket industry to reach an agreement with Farmworkers to substantially improve working conditions and wages in the tomato field in immokalee, Fla. There was a delegation of local religious and community leaders in the Dillons regional headquarters in Hutchison on Nov. 16 and a public march and rally on Nov. 19.
Students fight for migrant workers
BY SAMANTHA COLLINS
scollins@kansan.com
Editor's note: Samantha Collins will travel to Immokalee, Fla. over winter break to volunteer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student Farm Alliance for an alternative breaks program.
Ben Jeffries tried to be a migrant worker for one day in the hot Florida sun in the tomato fields of Immokalee, Fla. — just to see what it was like.
They worked in the humid heat pulling plastic tarps from the ground. Jeffries' body ached after a few hours of work and he still had hours of work to complete. He took several breaks while the other field workers yelled at him to keep a decent pace.
a decent pace.
"We were definitely the slowest workers there," Jeffries said.
it was like.
Jeffries, a senior from Tonganoxie and a member of Lawrence Fair Food, and his friend woke up at 4 a.m. one day last May and waited in a parking lot full of migrant workers looking for a job. They walked from Jefe to Jefe, or the crew leaders, asking for work until one man eventually gave them a job — to help tear out the tomato fields because the harvest season was officially over.
workers there. Jeffries said the workers earned sub-poverty wages and were forced to live in apartments with rents comparable to those in Manhattan, N.Y. He said it was normal for 12 or more men living in one residence. The workers only received about 50 cents for each 32 pounds of tomatoes they picked.
Jeffries and a group of other students visited the Coalition of Immokalee, or CIW, workers last May to work to achieve better working conditions for the tomato pickers of Immokalee. The campaign that CIW leads now wants the large supermarket chains in the United States, like Kroger, which owns Dillons, to sign on to help end these poor working conditions. This week is national supermarket week of action and Lawrence Fair Food, which is a student and community led group that is working with the CIW, is taking action.
Shona Clarkson, a senior from St. Louis, said the best way for a person to help is to learn about the issue and work with, not for, the CIW. Clarkson, also visited Immokalea last May. She said it was like visiting a foreign country.
"It definitely feels like you are not somewhere in America," Clarkson said.
"Immokalee is not a very happy place," Clarkson said. "I wouldn't say that I liked Immokalee."
She said most of the inhabitants of the town are migrant workers from South and Central America. She said most of the workers are lonely men who left their families to work in the U.S., and all they do is work in order to support their families.
EVENTS THIS WEEK.
Nov.19 Public Rally 4:30 p.m. — rally in South Park
5 p.m. march to Dillons on Massachusetts
There will be a public rally and march to Dillons to deliver a letter to the manager explaining the work conditions of the farm workers. The members will ask the manager to pass the letter along to his corporate manager.
powerful. "It wasn't all about doom and gloom, but also that everyone started taking huge strides to combat the things that kept them in their place," Clarkson said.
However, Clarkson said the best part about visiting Immokalee was meeting the people who run the coalition. She said hearing the migrant workers talk about their struggles while fighting to make a better livelihood for themselves was powerful.
place, Clarkson sain Aaron Stables, a senior from Derby, said the farm workers weren't the only ones being exploited within the supermarket world. The consumers — students, families, anyone who purchases food are being exploited.
When Stables visited the CIW, he said he and the other students attended many workshops to learn more about this issue. He said he learned that consumers were the most powerful agents in this campaign.
"Our options are already picked out for us," Stables said. "We as consumers are only seen as pocket books and mouths."
Jeffries said the best thing a person can do by visiting the CIW is to bring what they learned about the campaign back home to their community to make a change. And that is what they are doing this week.
is what they are doing today. Last night, Jeffries, Clarkson and Stables took action against Kroger. The Lawrence Fair Food sent delegates to the regional Kroger headquarters in Hutchinson to deliver a letter of concern stating the poor working conditions of the farm workers and asked them to join the campaign of selling only fair trade produce. This Friday, students and members of the community will join in South Park to march to the Dillon's at 1740 Massachusetts St. to deliver another letter to the manager asking for change.
ager than those for housing." "Students are consumers," Clarkson said. "Students have a voice and they have power to end farmer and consumer exploitation."
Edited by Anna Nordling
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