Choosing to eat healthy at Market Square is in students’ hands, and TCU Dining Services provides resources to help, Kelly Raw, district marketing coordinator for TCU Dining Services, said.
“We make sure to have a really good variety of things at the salad bar and fresh fruit every day,” Raw said. “All of our nutritional info is on our website, so if students are concerned, or if they are not really sure what they are eating or how many calories they are eating, they can look that up.”
Raw said she was proud Market Square offered students a wide variety of foods to choose from.
Even though students can look up different foods’ nutritional value, sophomore movement science major Katie Dalton said she only eats specific foods after finding out the nutritional information of a grilled cheese sandwich.
“I’ve started to really embrace the salad idea there because I feel like that’s my only options these days,” Dalton said. “I know that the calorie count exists, but I’m too afraid to look it up. Once I found out a grilled cheese was 440 calories, I was not about to look anything else up.”
According to the TCU Dining Services website, a grilled cheese sandwich has 300 calories.
Freshman nutrition major Millie Pool said she was afraid of trying different foods in Market Square for fear of consuming unhealthy items.
“I am getting tired of eating sandwiches and salads every day,” Pool said. “But I am scared to try the other stuff because I don’t know what they are putting in it exactly.”
Pool said she hoped Market Square could provide more options that are both made in-house and that are healthy.
“I think you can still make healthy foods taste good,” Pool said. “Some of the options that they change out every day aren’t very healthy, and I think that they could make them healthy and still taste good.”
Sophomore movement science major Nicole Toomey said she thought it was hard to find foods she could eat on a daily basis.
“I don’t really like [Market Square] because I am a vegetarian, and I feel like they don’t really have that many options unless you want to eat pasta and vegetables all day,” Toomey said. “There is nothing wrong with that except that it kind of gets monotonous.”
In addition to the salad bar, Toomey said there are other good choices but it was sometimes necessary to go through all of the stations to find them.
Stephanie Dickerson, nutrition counselor for TCU Dining Services, said students may have to shop from section to section to put together a balanced meal but that there were many different foods to choose from.
She said the key to eating healthy in Market Square as well as anywhere else was proper planning before eating. A link is available on the dining website to help students develop their own plans, she said.
“You can click on the items that you are interested in having,” Dickerson said. “You have to plan. You can always eat healthy at Market Square. We have lean meats, fruits and vegetables and whole grains.”
Raw said students might overlook portion control when eating in Market Square as well. She said students might underestimate how many calories they consumed at a meal because they ate more than one serving size. Checking the serving size when looking at the other nutritional facts online is just as important, she said.
Raw also said TCU Dining Services has constantly worked to get different options and recipes, including more gluten-free options for students with gluten intolerance.
Healthy, do-it-yourself meal ideas for TCU students using foods from Market Square
Morning Mix
-1 cup unsweetened yogurt (Located in salad bar)
-Mix of fresh fruits, sliced
-Tablespoon of dried cranberries and raisins (salad bar)
-1/2 cup of granola or low sugar cereal
Hummus Sandwich
-Two slices of whole wheat bread (Located next to bagel and cereal station)
-Fresh hummus
-Spinach leaves
-Fresh tomato
-Provolone cheese
Caesar Wrap
-Mixed greens tossed with Caesar dressing (salad bar)
-Grilled chicken breast, sliced
-Whole wheat wrap
-Roll ingredients in wrap, serve with fresh fruit
