Trojan Dining goes digital

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Tobi Olugbemi
Staff Writer

Trojan Dining has introduced a healthier way to eating with the assistance of a downloadable app, My Fitness Pal.

This new idea presents the student with a barcode near the food of choice they are selecting. With a scan of the barcode, through the My Fitness Pal app, the student would know the amount of calories present in each meal.

Fortunately, this app can be downloaded onto any smartphone.

The Trojan Dining hall Services is taking measures to put barcodes on the products that are served in the dining hall to allow students to eat healthier and to also know how much of any particular good they are eating.

When trying to keep track of fitness and nutrition, the student would need to  download the app ”my fitness pal” from their respective app story or simply go onto myfitnesspal.com.

Then use the search features to find items or use the scanning features to get nutrition information about the food from bar codes.

Finally, the student can build and save his or her meals and track against his or her personal nutrition objectives.

“The Troy University Dining Services is concerned about the welfare and health of Troy students,” said Sheetal Nangia, unit marketing specialist of Trojan Dining.

“Therefore the dining services and my fitness pal have teamed up to help make tracking nutrition easier than ever.”

My Fitness Pal can be used to track your nutrition at your favorite restaurants and at home. Just set and track your fitness goals over time and even share with your friends.

“Also a new service called simple servings has been introduced to Troy Dining Hall,” Nangia said, going more in depth about what the dining hall has to offer in terms of nutrition.

“’Simple servings’ is at the Bella Trattoria in Trojan Dining and serves foods that do not contain milk, eggs, wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, treenuts or gluten.”

This was recently put in place because there are those who are allergic to certain types of foods.

To help with serving, purple plates are used to serve so as to avoid cross-contamination with other foods, Nangia explained.

Holly Ammons, a sophomore nursing major from Geneva appreciates what the dining hall is trying to do for students.

“I like the new technology, but it can be difficult to use if you don’t know the exact brand of food that is served or how much exercise you have done,” she said.

Caitlin Mock, a sophomore english education major from Samson, agrees with Ammons.

“It’s helpful but difficult to commit to because foods that you don’t know about can be much harder to scan into the app,” she said.

“The Fitness Pal is free, and it is very accurate,” Nangia said, when asked how accurate the app was. She also explained that the students who have used it say it has a lot of benefits.

“We have started a program called ‘Mindful’ which educates the students on what they eat,” Nangia said.

For instance half of the food could be fruits and vegetables, while one quarter could be dairy and the other quarter could be starches.

“That is healthy eating and also the food is spicy and very delicious so as to encourage the students to eat it and have a balanced diet,” Nangia said.

 

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