Food for Thought

For students with high metabolisms and short budgets, Doritos, doughnuts and the dollar menu might sound like reasonable food options. Animal sciences lecturer Charlie Apter challenged students to question such choices in his new course, “Eating With Eyes Wide Open.” During the semester, undergraduates canned vegetables, purged sugar from their diets, considered the ethics of lab-grown meat, and more. Excerpts from their journal entries offer a taste of their experience:

48-hour sugar fast

“The worst part of my day was when someone … gave me a free cupcake. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to get a free cupcake, until I realized a couple seconds later that I couldn’t eat it.”

–Marybela Manuel

The real cost of junk food

“Not only does food hit your wallet pretty hard, it hits your body pretty hard. One second you’re wiping ice cream off your face, and the next you’re wiping tears off your scale.”

–Chloe Rock

Fast food day

“We eat very quickly, hoping somehow to catch up to the original idea of a cheeseburger or french fry as it retreats over the horizon. And so it does, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied exactly, but simply, regrettably full. This is exactly how I felt after consuming so much fast food in about a 12-hour period.”

–Ruslana Milikhiker

Gardening for the first time

“I knew eggplant was a plant but to see the different stages of how an eggplant comes about was BEAUTIFUL!”

–Shereen Ibrahim