OUR VIEW: Be Well program much appreciated

Like all other fast food restaurants – except Burger King, which seems hellbent on giving people their grease in the largest vessels possible -USU’s Hub is going to start offering Be Well options, healthy alternatives to some of the less healthy options the eatery now offers.

Buying wraps and veggies and whole wheat bread will now earn students a 10 percent discount. A punch card for frequent healthy eaters will also give students who are “being well” a free good-for-you meal after the purchase of 10 similar ones.

This is great news. Giving students the option to eat healthy, and for less, is a great start to dealing with weighty issues – bad pun intended.

In America, where our waistlines are expanding faster than the national debt, it’s especially important to have these healthy, non-artery-clogging options on the menu.

The smaller portion sizes – equitably priced, so you aren’t paying the same amount for less food – also help hungry students get the right amount of something that is actually not too bad for them.

At the same time, we must at least give lip service to the demonization of pizza and other fast food. For centuries, pizza boxes and junior bacon cheeseburger wrappers have been the hallmark of college eating. What will it be now, salad shooters and whole wheat crumbs?

And what about the freshman 15? With new, healthy choices, will that go the way of Hootie and the Blowfish?

We doubt any of these vaunted collegiate cornerstones will go extinct. New options may give students the motivation to kick those things out of their personal lives, which may not be all bad.

Who knows? Eating healthy will likely help USU students have more energy to get through long days of classes, homework and real work.

We think providing students with the choice to eat these new healthier options is a palatable way of introducing the Be Well menu items. No college student wants to be told what to eat. We wouldn’t want it to seem like mommy was trying to get us to eat all our Brussels sprouts before we can go play Nintendo. That sort of thing is off-putting.

But if students see all the popular kids choosing veggie-filled wraps instead of greasy pizzas, maybe they will turn to the health-food dark side.

Kudos to the Hub and the campus dieticians for designing the new Be Well program and actively working to implement it. Not only that, we appreciate the efforts to make eating healthier more affordable than eating unhealthy choices. If only other food joints would catch on to this idea.

Now that we have the option to eat healthy, how do we get students off the couch and onto the treadmill?