Yeah, one of the approaches we've tried is to point out that the unhealthy food probably contributes to increased health care costs. As I mentioned, according to an informal survey, probably half or more of my colleagues are taking medication for diabetes, hypertension, or both. And the fact that one of our number died of a stroke last year while only in his 40s would raise some concerns, you'd think -- considering that the quality of his diet was almost-certainly a major contributing factor.
But the message we get is that it's a lot
cheaper to use highly-processed, preservative-laden crap; it does indeed have a longer shelf life, and is dirt cheap when bought in bulk.
The other argument we get is that
this is what the students want. Every day, they serve pizza and French fries. And honestly, I think that's all some of our students eat. There's one student in particular who must weigh 350 pounds or more, and every day I see her with two plates -- one is stacked high with 5 or 6 slices of pizza and the other is stacked high with French fries. And she has 2 glasses of Pepsi. If she
ever consumes anything else, I've never witnessed it. And she's far from the only one; she's just the most obvious.
Yet, last semester, the college tried adding a salad bar. It was
wildly popular amongst both the faculty and the students. Each day at lunch, there would be a long line to get to the salad bar (I made a point of getting there early, so I could be at or near the front of the line). But they discontinued the salad bar after just one semester. What was the stated reason? It was "too expensive" to secure the fresh vegetables.
In fairness, I don't doubt that it
is a lot more expensive to provide fresh food. This region really is a "food desert," and when I do my weekend shopping, I have to drive 30+ miles to the nearest grocery store that sells halfway-fresh produce.
It's worth it, in my opinion. But I understand all too well that many of our students can't afford to do that. And even if they could afford to drive so far for decent food, they wouldn't be able to keep it, nor would they have the time or facilities to do their own cooking.
So, when they don't eat at the campus cafeteria, our students (and faculty) typically frequent the local fast food joints. Which isn't exactly a step up, of course.
***
The good news is that I seem to be responding well to the medication. Since the dosage was halved, my blood pressure has been staying right where it should -- it averages about 110/65. Hopefully, with continued exercise and diet, I can eliminate the pills entirely.
In the meantime, I have yet
another follow-up appointment tomorrow. Hopefully, that will go as well as the last one. In the meantime, I've had my blood drawn so many times in the past few weeks that I feel like a vampire's victim. When I went in this morning to have some more blood drawn for tomorrow's exam, the nurse took one look at my arms and said, "I see we've done this before."