With the quick swipe of a student ID and a plastic brown tray in hand, Megan Kono is left standing in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall faced with a serious dilemma. As she moves from station to station, she must fight the ever-present temptation to grab a slice of fresh tomato pizza or dish out a serving of macaroni and cheese. She must walk quickly past the tub of French fries and the trays of cookies that Dewick offers on a daily basis.
As a swimmer at Tufts in the midst of an intense training season, Kono, a sophomore, has made a conscious decision to cut sweets and other unhealthy foods from her diet. But this is no simple task, as the stress of college and the abundance of food in the dining halls seems to work against anyone hoping to shed a few pounds.
If there is anyone that understands the importance of a healthy diet, it is Susan Roberts, professor of nutrition and psychiatry at Tufts Medical School and author of "The Instinct Diet: Use Your Five Food Instincts to Lose Weight and Keep It Off" (2008).
Roberts, an expert on nutrition and obesity control, has made a career out of helping people lose weight. In her new book, she stresses that the key to weight control is in understanding the biology behind our eating habits. Once we recognize what drives us to eat the way we do, we can begin to change our sometimes harmful routines.
"The Instinct Diet is all about controlling your five food instincts," Roberts said in an e-mail to the Daily.
As described in her book, humans are born with five food instincts that have been instilled in us for the purpose of early survival. These instincts include hunger (we like to feel full), availability (we eat simply because food is present), calorie density (we prefer food that is heavy in calories), familiarity (we enjoy comfort foods that we're used to) and variety (the more variety we have in food, the more we will eat).
Roberts considers the recognition of these instincts to be a key component in the process of losing weight, noting that humans must first understand why the body craves certain foods in order to control these urges and eat healthily.
It seems that all five food instincts must be fought in order to make it through a trip to the dining hall with a waistline still intact. With a menu that boasts items as diverse as red curry beef and grilled tuna steak and a wide array of comfort foods such as lasagna and chicken parmesan, the dining halls can be a danger zone for dieters at Tufts.
"As much as I want to [do so], eating healthy at college can be hard sometimes," sophomore Eliza Walters said. "When there isn't anything appealing for dinner at the dining hall, the fallback choices are usually pretty unhealthy, such as waffles or sugary cereal."
Roberts recognizes that college life can leave one vulnerable to poor nutrition but stresses that by following the Instinct Diet, one can be back on track to a healthy lifestyle.
"College dining is a challenge," Roberts said. "The first thing is you have to stay satisfied 24/7 or you can't control yourself."
With Roberts' advice, every meal in the dining hall can potentially be a healthy one. For breakfast, Roberts recommends a high-fiber cereal such as Fiber One or All Bran Extra Fiber.
"With high fiber cereal ... fruit on top for taste, and milk, you have a great start to the day," Roberts said. For lunch, she recommends a salad with the addition of chicken or chickpeas. Dinner should be comprised of whole grains, lots of vegetables, and lean meats. Although allowed, dessert should be eaten sparingly and only on a few select days of the week.
To keep hunger and cravings at bay, Roberts stresses the importance of healthy snacks. "Carry some apples or an orange and nuts for snacks so you don't get hungry and buy cookies or chips," she said. "Timing is really important as well. When you cut calories for weight control, snacks become really important."
Although Roberts' ideas make sense, they may be easier to carry out in theory than in practice. And though it seems easy enough to follow a diet, we often find ourselves vowing to start eating more healthily after that final slice of chocolate cake or that one last potato chip.
"You're told what you should be eating, but your body also knows what tastes good to you. It's a little bit harder when it comes down to it," Kono said. "I know how many calories I should be eating based on how much I work out each day but I'm not going to sit around and calorie-count."
To these foibles, Roberts has simple advice. "You practice," she said. "That is really almost all it takes ... Our brain is amazingly adaptable. If you satisfy your instincts by eating the right way, then all the temptations die down and it gets easier to make the permanent changes that keep your weight under control from here on out."
