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SAR students talk tofu on Nutrition Awareness Day

By Hope Green

When Kim Seidl joins her family for the holidays in Wisconsin, she won't be eating her grandmother's Christmas ham. Her main course is more likely to be spinach lasagna with tofu or lentil and wild rice casserole.

Like many BU students, Seidl (SAR'01) is a vegan, a strict vegetarian who shuns not only meat but also eggs and milk products.

"It's a little tough sometimes when we have family functions," says Seidl, who is studying in the master's level nutrition program at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. "When we go to a Green Bay Packers game and we're planning to have a barbecue in the parking lot, my dad gets upset because I want to bring veggie burgers."

Seidl has learned to prepare balanced meals using tofu, green vegetables, whole grains, and beans. But many who adopt a meatless diet fail to make such healthful substitutions. That's one reason Alternative Protein Sources was chosen as the theme of the December 8 Nutrition Awareness Day on campus.

At the event, Seidl and eight of her classmates set up educational displays in four undergraduate dining halls at peak lunch times. They handed out fact sheets and a dietary assessment quiz, which enabled students to calculate their recommended daily protein intake.

"When you actually look at our diet, most Americans are getting twice as much protein as they need every day," Seidl says. "And they don't realize that there are benefits to eating proteins from a variety of sources."

An edible education

To become registered dietitians, students in the master's level nutrition program must complete a year of course work as well as 28 weeks of internships and community outreach projects. As part of their public education component, they are assembling baskets for the Allston-Brighton Food Pantry that include pamphlets on how to create nutritious family meals.

Master's students held the first Nutrition Awareness Day at BU last year, focusing on calcium.

"The students have to meet all these community competencies, and I thought it would be interesting to have them use the undergraduates as a community," explains Joan Salge Blake, an adjunct clinical assistant professor at SAR and director of the dietetic internships. Royletta Romain, the dietitian for BU Dining Services, welcomed the idea and selected this year's protein theme.

"I chose protein because there are vegetarians and vegans on campus," she says, "and they need to be aware of what constitutes a well-balanced diet so they can think and grow and thrive."

A variety of vegetable-based protein sources is readily available in the dining halls, but students don't always understand the value of topping their salad with garbanzo beans, tofu cubes, or sunflower seeds.

"Some people will stop eating meat and then not eat any protein at all, or they will eat a lot of cheese and french fries and then wonder why they're feeling sluggish and gaining weight," Romain says. "A lack of protein and vegetables will do that."

Talkin' tofu

During Nutrition Awareness Day, Seidl and her classmates spoke with a number of undergraduates - vegetarians and omnivores alike. As for the upcoming holidays, she offers this advice to fellow vegans: do some of the cooking. At Thanksgiving, she made a pumpkin pie with tofu instead of evaporated milk, used margarine and soy milk in the mashed potatoes, and prepared a vegetarian dish resembling turkey that was served alongside the traditional bird.

"Just about everything on the menu can be made vegetarian with just a few simple modifications," she says. "It's really easy for parents to get flustered around the holidays if you don't eat meat. But if you come prepared, the holidays are a great time for you to show them that vegetarian cooking is easy and tastes just as good."

Other words of advice: help with the grocery shopping. "Don't expect anybody to cater to your preferences," Seidl says. "You can't expect grandma to go out and buy soy milk for you."

15 December 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations