March 21 thru March 25 students celebrated National Nutrition Month in the dining centers on campus with healthy dishes, giveaways and educational nutrition information.

Jody Horn, director of Panther Dining, said National Nutrition Month is a campaign to help educate consumers.

Horn said Ashley Thacker, a graduate assistant, organized the events for National Nutrition Month.

“Ashley promoted the campaign here for us and she wanted to help educate our students and help them with any nutrition questions or issues so they can make the choices they want to make here on our campus and in our food venues,” Horn said.

National Nutrition Month is sponsored by the American Dietetic Association to promote nutrition and eating healthy.

Horn said the dining centers participate in National Nutrition Month every year.

“We have always had this on our calendar but it depends on the knowledge, skill and creativity of our grads to promote the event and Ashley just did an exceptional job this year,” Horn said. “We have not had this much creativity and participation before.”

Each day of the week, the National Nutrition Month presentation occurred in a different dining center.

On March 21, the presentation was in Taylor Hall Dining Center, March 22 it was located in Thomas Hall Dining Center and March 23 it was provided in Carman Hall Dining Center.

On March 24, the presentation was located in the Stevenson Tower Dining Center and March 25 it took place in the University Food Court in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

With each presentation, students had the opportunity to sample a nutritional dish and they were then asked to provide input on whether or not they would want the dish to be served in the dining centers on a regular basis.

On March 22, “chickenless” barbeque chicken strips were served in the Thomas Hall Dining Center.

Along with the food samples, different nutritional information brochures were given to students.

Horn said students could benefit from National Nutrition Month by becoming educated on what healthy choices exist at Eastern and to learn what foods to choose to meet their desired nutritional goals.

Some of the brochures included “Fad Diets: Healthy or Harmful,” “Campus Food Safety Tips for Students,” and “Nutrition Basics.”

In “Nutrition Basics,” it included five things you should know about nutrition.

Some of the five aspects include knowing that everyone requires a different amount of calorie intake each day, what one’s main source of calories are carbohydrates, protein, fat and alcohol and what one should decrease in their intake of sodium, fats, added sugar and refined grains like donuts.

Different guessing games were available to students in order to win prizes like lanyards and tote bags.

Thacker asked students to guess how many calories were in a large jar filled with cheerios as well as a jar of jellybeans. If the student guessed correctly, the student would win the jars of cheerios and jellybeans.

To conclude National Nutrition Month, a health fair and luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Grand Ballroom located in the Union.

Tickets for the luncheon and health fair were sold until March 25 for $10.50. All proceeds go to the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.

The event will feature Jim Painter, chair of family and consumer sciences and food psychologist, to speak about nutrition.

The health fair and luncheon will include raffles for prizes and a catered lunch including different types of pasta and salad.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.