| RELATED INFO |
| * Purdue University Residences |
| * NetNutrition |
| * Sensible Eating |
October 29, 2007
Online service allows students to track, plan nutritional intake
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - With students increasingly concerned about maintaining healthy diets, Purdue is among a growing number of universities to launch an online service to provide students with healthy food for thought about the meals they are eating in university dining facilities.The Purdue University Residences' NetNutrition Web site allows diners to click on menu items they consumed and in what quantity. Once entered, they receive instantaneous nutritional feedback, including the amount of consumed calories, fat, carbohydrates, cholesterol and protein. The software also calculates what percentage of the recommended daily allowance of each nutrient has been consumed. With most Purdue dining areas being WiFi zones, students with wireless computing devices can access the information at their dinner table.
"College students are always on the go, but they want to be in the know," said Kathy Manwaring, assistant director of dining services. "This service provides quick, detailed, understandable information that is easily accessed by an online generation. NetNutrition is like a 24/7 study guide for better health."
The system provides information on food items standard to dining courts across campus: deli sandwiches, salad bar and grill items, waffles, breakfast bar, and beverages. University Residences is working to post more food items, including custom recipes unique to Purdue's dining courts.
To help students identify proper serving size, each self-serve station in the Purdue dining courts has been labeled with photographs of everyday items. A bar of soap is the size of an order of fries, a tennis ball is the size of a half-cup serving of fresh fruit, and a baseball equals a cup of Cheerios. Kathy Manwaring, assistant director of dining services, said those depictions can help students pursue the recommended strategy of eating whatever they like, but in moderation.
Purdue's NetNutrition site is housed on its "Sensible Eating" Web page at https://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/DINSensibleEating.htm, which offers students dietary and nutritional tips. Other universities offering similar services include Cal Tech, Rice and SUNY at Brockton.
Writer: Jim Schenke, (765) 494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu
Source: Kathy Manwaring, (765) 494-1000, kmanwaring@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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