Mom isn’t telling us to eat our vegetables anymore.

But somewhere along the line, Mom’s words must’ve embedded themselves in our brains, because many students are taking the advice to heart, along with a myriad of other healthy eating tips that flood the media.

Students in the dorms, who make up about 1/3 of the Iowa State population, are basically at the mercy of food service and what it offers.

But Stewart Burger, director of food service for the residence halls, said that he is making every effort to cater to what the students want. Through surveys and customer response, food service officials have learned that students are craving healthier viddles.

“The amount of interest is irrefutable that people in general and students are requiring more fresh vegetables, more things that are made with fresh ingredients, more things that are cooked to order, lower in fat, lower in salt [and] higher in fiber,” Burger said.

In addition, many students who don’t live a meat-free lifestyle are turning onto meals without animal flesh. “They’re accepting of non-meat items,” Burger said. “I didn’t say that there are more vegetarians; what we’ve found is there haven’t been a lot more vegetarians.

“We’ve found that the general population of students is more accepting of and willing to try non-meat items … so those are some of the things we’ve been responding to.”

Some students say, however, that while they are open to choosing the non-meat items, they don’t look very appetizing.

“I’m not real big on red meat,” said Jenny Bergevin, a freshman in pre-business who lives in the dorms. “I’m glad I don’t like it because it’s not healthy, but I really don’t like it anyway. I eat chicken, and when they have cod, I eat that. … The vegetarian hot meals, I don’t like those. Most of what I see are vegetable pizza or vegetable pot pies. I would rather have soup and salad than that.”

In fact, soup and salad is what Bergevin eats most of the time. “I don’t eat a lot of the hot meals,” she said. “I don’t think the entrees are low-fat. I usually just have a sandwich and a salad. I have soup a lot and cheese pizza every now and then.”

Burger said that food service has taken some big strides in reducing the fat in entrees and side orders. He offers lower-fat condiments, such as salad dressings and mayonnaise, and has reduced the amount of oil or butter put on pasta and potatoes. Food Service officials even substitute certain high-fat ingredients for those lower in fat.

Despite these improvements, however, students still find cause for complaint. Glenn Ellerbe, a junior in computer science who lives in Friley, said that he would like to see an even greater variety in the meals offered.

“They do have a good selection, [but] I wish they had more entrees,” he said. “There are some days when what they have just aren’t appealing.”

He also mentioned that certain entrees get served over and over again. “I do feel kind of upset when there are hamburgers three times a week,” he said.

Bergevin also brought up the repetitive nature of the menu. “At the beginning of the year, I wondered, ‘How can people complain? There’s so much to choose from,'” she said. “But now I see that the menu is really repetitive.”

Burger said that he and his staff have worked on cutting down on repeating entrees. The menu used to run on a six-week cycle, so the same choices for each meal would repeat three times a semester. Now, though, it goes through an eight-week cycle, which means that the entire menu is served only twice in a 16-week semester.

He also said that at each meal, they try to feature entrees that have a variety of methods of preparation, red and white meat, high fat and low fat, and so on.

Another improvement Burger mentioned is the new use of more detailed labeling, which was implemented this week. These lists break down the ingredients of each entree, including the amount of sodium and fat as a percentage of total calories, and are posted right on the glass in front of the meal.

He pointed out that this new program “has been very successful.” For example, food service workers started posting the fat content on milk, skim versus 2 percent, and “consumption of skim went way up,” Burger said, because it’s lower in fat.

In addition, “once we started telling people in our sandwich line that bagels are low in fat, consumption went way up.”

And for the last few semesters, food service has been offering unlimited entrees, so if a student chooses something that ends up not making his mouth water, or even if he or she is still hungry after finishing, he or she can return to the line to get another meal. The only rule, Burger said, is not to waste food.

Ellerbe, for one, said he “most definitely” takes advantage of the unlimited entree offer.

Another brand-new aspect of food service is a computer database of all meals and their ingredients. If a person has an allergy to, say, corn oil he or she can request a printout listing of all menu items that do not contain corn oil.

Mikaela Van De Water, a sophomore in elementary education, has a problem with food service that is more serious, however. She is a diabetic and must be super careful about what she eats. While she commends food service for the variety of fruits and vegetables, she has trouble eating regular entrees.

If she eats a greasy meal, that raises her blood sugar, but “then if I only have that, then I don’t have enough carbohydrates,” she said. “So either that, or I eat the good [lower-fat] food and then I’m at Subway later that night. So sometimes I just go ahead and eat the fatty food.” A real catch-22.

And unfortunately for Van De Water and other diabetics, food service does not yet offer a database to keep track of sugar. That will be available next year. So Van De Water keeps a stock of graham crackers and cheese in her dorm room in case the munchies hit in between meals.

Bergevin also relies on nearby fast-food restaurants in case the dorm meals don’t satisfy. She and her friends hit Subway or Blimpie’s on those nights when nothing else sounds good.

Bergevin realizes that it is impossible to please every single student with a dorm meal plan, especially since the majority of students are male and might not care as much about fat and calories.

“I can always have a salad, and I know that you can’t make everyone happy,” she said. “And I know they have to cater meals to guys, who eat anything. It’s definitely girls who try to eat more positively and healthy. I don’t think guys would go for vegetarian meals or soup and salad.”

Guys seem to back up her claim. “I just eat what they have,” Ellerbe said. “I work out a lot, and I burn off the calories anyway.”

Two other men said they “could really [not] care less” about whether a meal was low-fat. Ian Schneider, a freshman in chemical engineering, said, “Actually, I’m pretty satisfied with what they have. I’m usually pretty hungry.”

And Jack Manneman, a freshman in pre-engineering, said food service does a good job of providing a variety of entrees. “They really couldn’t do much better,” he said.

And while Burger said that many students keep an eye out for the healthiest foods, there are still some food-service offerings that are high in fat — and popularity.

“[Not] all items that are high in fat are not being eaten,” he said. “[Students] are more choosy about what items they want to have. They may choose to cut out fat in a lot of things, but they’ll still have french fries. It’s a trade-off the customer has to make.”