Everyone has high ambitions when deciding what food they might eat that day.

But as the day rambles on, these lofty goals become a dream for another time. For some, it might be because passing Chic-fil-A without getting something feels like sacrilege, but I feel for most, eating healthy just is not a viable option, especially in Charleston.

Eating healthy for most college students is just not possible, not because there is not a single healthy option in the town, but because healthy food is financially draining.

According to a National Post article, the Harvard School of Public Health did a study finding out a healthy diet costs roughly $1.50 more a day. While that does not sound like much, added up, it totals to $2,000 a year.

This is money a student paying college and a water bill cannot maintain for long periods of time.

Campus life does not afford students the ability to even make a good attempt at eating healthy. Especially for some like those who live in residence halls, realistically there are not many options aside from what can be microwaved which is normally cheap and satisfying for the time.

Eating a Maruchan Ramen packet from the 12-pack for $3 at 1 a.m. seems to be the only option when it comes to eating food that will not break the bank. This is by no means a balanced meal, but there seems to be no better options to the contrary.

The university does not offer food on campus that could even be considered healthy while also tasting good, aside from Subway.

Subway cannot be eaten everyday though. While the dining halls have some options for healthy food, the palette is much to limited to be considered on a daily basis. Aside from having a salad everyday, it seems impossible to sustain a weekly healthy diet in the dining halls.

Healthy diets are important, and yet, the current food economy and the lack of options on campus make these diets seem impossible.

It feels like a lose-lose situation. I cannot cook healthy foods without throwing down a lot of money for food, not to mention the limited cooking conditions available in residence halls. I can also not look to the dining halls for the next best thing because there options are severely limited.

Policies need to be made to fix this issue, not only for college students, but also for the entire country. Policies encouraging the production and growth of healthy foods in the U.S. would hopefully force prices to drop for foods we need to eat as opposed to foods that are cheap and good for a short time.

We have put to much emphasis cheap, quick food. A way of changing this mindset would be to make healthy foods a better financial option for people.

This would also hopefully, in turn, make more healthy foods an option in dining halls because it would be the cheaper option.

The country already has issues with obesity and unhealthy eating, and fixing these costs would be the big step in making this problem less significant.

Jarad Jarmon is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7912 or [email protected]