– An Easy Spread –

If you grew up and went to school in the U.S., I’m sure you remember seeing a Food Pyramid from the USDA that looked something like this:

This pyramid was designed to show you nutrition information and suggested consumption guidelines for six different categories of food (grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meats and proteins, and fats).

In 2005, the U.S. government changed the design of this traditional pyramid to look more like the one pictured at the top of this page (with vertical lines extending downward from the top of the pyramid), but they kept the same food categories. They now call this “My Pyramid,” and it is normally pictured with a stick figure person climbing imaginary stairs on the outside of the pyramid (apparently to signify that exercise is an important aspect of staying healthy).

Although these nutrition guidelines are what we all should be living by, it’s hard to deny that many of us don’t—especially college students.

I decided to poll 100 random college students on George Mason University’s campus to see what their nutrition pyramid might look like (based on the foods and drinks that they consume most often). Below is a copy of the poll that I handed out.

A College Student’s Nutrition Pyramid

What’s most important in your diet?

Please rank the top 5 things that you consume, in order [1=consume more often, 5= consume less often].

Out of the 23 food and drink choices above, as well as several “Other” foods/drinks listed, Cold Sandwiches were the most consumed item, earning 25% of the votes*. The next most consumed item was Pizza, with 21.16% of the votes. There was a four-way tie (at 13.46% of the votes each) for Bread, Potatoes/French Fries, Vegetables, and Beer. Hmm…that last one is definitely not on the traditional food pyramid! I guess matching two out of the recommended six traditional categories isn’t bad.

*The top six items consumed were determined by counting the total number of “1s” (i.e. item people marked as consuming most often) that each of the items received. Cold Sandwiches received 13 “1s”, Pizza received 11 “1s”, and Bread, Potatoes/French Fries, Vegetables, and Beer all received 7 “1s”.

Stephanie is an English graduate student at George Mason University who loves her family, friends, and dogs. When she’s not going to class or bartending, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and snowboarding.