Fresh Food Company: FIU’s Weight Watchers

Ariel Weinstein/Staff Writer

If you have heard of “Weight Watchers”, you would know that it is all about portion control and keeping track of calories.

When I walk into Fresh Foods Company, I feel like I am walking into the Weight Watcher’s headquarters.

Eating at fresh is a process. Not because the lines are so long, but because the portions of food they give out are so minimal you have to keep getting up and going back to get more.

Yes, I will admit that America does have a serious issue of high rates of obesity, and that people need to learn to eat healthier. I believe entirely that portion control is an extremely important aspect of life to learn and live by, and at the same time, I believe that knowing the approximate calories you are taking in, and how many calories your personal body needs, is also very important.

However, I feel that the University takes it to the extreme. Just a few days ago, I went and picked up a serving of curly pasta. The bowl it was served in was so tiny I doubt there were more than ten pieces of pasta in it. This is not an exaggeration. I believe they are meant for tasting, to see if you like it or not, and there is nothing wrong with taste bowls.

The problem arises, however, when you have been in class the entire day, worked out, and haven’t eaten anything yet.

The last thing anyone wants to do at this point of hunger, is get handed a bowl of pasta that can’t fit more than ten pieces in it. The serving sizes are bite-sized, and I don’t think most people find that desirable or healthy. While portion control is supposed to teach people how to not eat too much, Fresh teaches people the extreme.

True, they do have bigger dishes than just the taste-sized ones, but they aren’t that much bigger. Even if you hand a regular size plate to an employee serving a particular dish, they will tell you you can’t have it on that plate.

Why? Because apparently the only way to get food on a plate that is not a fruit or vegetable, is in portions of taste-sized bowls.

Teenagers and young adults are still growing, and have diets that involve more than a few pieces of pasta or rice.

I personally feel from this whole experience, that they should keep the taste bowls, and the bowls that are a little bigger than taste bowls, so that people can take as little as they want, but at the same time, if a kid wants a plate of pasta or chicken or rice, just give them what they want and what their bodies are screaming at them to have.