Di b McAdams
Nutrition should take priority
Perhaps Amigo’s will get fat
free refried beans now that
Hillary Rodham Clinton has
included nutrition counseling in the
administration’s health-care reform
proposal.
Maybe that’s a long shot, but a
typical American diet contains 40
percent fat. That figure would proba
bly be a lot lower if that 40 percent
was a white slab of grease covering
almost half of a dinner plate. Unfortu
nately, it’s cleverly incorporated into
just about everything that doesn’t taste
like Styrofoam, like the frijoles at our
favorite fast Mexican diner, which
are refried in the clarified, melted fat
of hogs.
The most prevalent diseases in the
United States, heart disease and can
cer, appear to be related to our fat
consumption. Aside from genetic pre
disposition, saturated fat is the big
gest bugaboo in heart disease. High
fat diets have also been linked to
breast cancer, the second most com
mon cancer among women. U.S. wom
en have a one in eight chance of
developing breast cancer; four times
that of women in Japan, who consume
a diet averaging 15 percent fat.
The administration’s emphasis on
nutrition is part of a larger intention:
to encourage people to take responsi
bility for their health.
With a little education, fat con
sumption is something individuals can
control, but passively waiting for nu
trition counseling doesn’t constitute
taking responsibility for one’s own
health. Nutrition information is avail
able on every food product that comes
in a package. Reading food labels
should be as compulsory as wearing
seat belts, but Americans would riot
at the suggestion of grocery police.
Reading food labels is a great
motivator for changing one’s eating
habits. It’s somehow less appealing to
dress a salad with the same thing that
lubricates the ball bearings in the
John Deere.
Processed foods contain all sorts
of goodies not found in nature.
Contrary to Saturday morning TV
commercials, fruit is a whole,
unaltered plant ovary, not a sug
ary paste inside of a rectangular
toaster food.
Processed foods contain all sortsof
goodies not found in nature. Contrary
to Saturday morning TV commer
cials, fruit is a whole, unaltered plant
ovary, not a sugary paste inside of a
rectangular toaster food.
The fact that fruit can be purchased
as paste, glue, spread or leather dem
onstrates the consumer’s distance
from the source of the food. In the
United States, food travels an average
of 1,200 miles before it reaches a
dinner table. There are artichokes that
have seen more of America than I
have.
Our distance from food production
is a 20th century phenomenon. The
United States has become an urban
nation, with 2 to 3 percent of the
population remaining on farms. Farms
are where much of our food is pro
duced. Food comes from dirt, not
conveyor belts.
We are so disinclined to be in
volved in food production that we let
illegal aliens stay in our country as
long as they are picking strawberries
and living in station wagons. We toss
them out when they get uppity and try
to live in a house and take those good
janitorial jobs.
Western society’s relationship to
food has become one dimensional.
We select foods on the basis of taste,
not nutrition. Our desire for taste in
cludes an addiction to sugar. We each
eat roughly one-third of a pound of
sugar per day.
It seems too bizarre for science
fiction that a nation with the cheapest,
most plentiful food in the world lives
on fat and sugar.
Beyond our astounding ignorance
and indifference to what our diets do
to our health, we have our lifestyles to
contend with. Students are a good
example. All of the residence halls
include a meal plan. The meal plan
defies students’ rights to make certain
choices about their nutrition, although
many students would choose to live
on pizza, Mountain Dew and vending
machine food. For the handful of stu
dents who may want to chose an egg
free or dairy-free diet, meal plans can
be obstacles.
The other major aspect of student
life affecting nutrition is time. Most
college students function at warp
speed. Eating anything at all is a
logistical nightmare when you’re
chained to a computer and a deadline.
Fourteen hours later, when you re
member to eat something, it’s hard to
care what it is as long as it’s not
clawing orbiting.
Changing one’seating habits takes
time. People need to understand that
eating should maintain the body, not
their taste addictions. We also need to
know what we are eating, just in case
we prefer not to turn into clarified,
melted hog fat.
McAdams Is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
• HSJ <'
(illsl ( )IMM< >\
Guilty should come forward
Rage and anger swelled in my
mind one day in April 1992.
Confusion and animosity were
all I could feel as the verdict came
across the airwaves — not guilty! It
was the discussion in every class
room, all over campus, in my home
town and where 1 worked.
The rage I felt against those police
officers who beat Rodney King is not
entirely different from the rage that
many international students, as well
as other students, felt on this campus
after the beating of Boon-Chung Ong
on Oct. 17, 1993.
These two incidents are worlds
apart, because police officers beat
King, even though they were sup
posed to uphold the law and protect
citizens. And yet, although the inci
dents are different, I continue to ask
myself, when will justice be served
when injustice is committed? The
assault against Ong was a beating that
was ignorant and uncalled for.
After reading the numerous arti
cles in the Daily Nebraskan and The
Journalist about the assault, I felt it
was time to write on behalf of the
Afrikan People’s Union.
First of all, to clear up some incor
rect information printed in those pa
pers, APU turned in an event registra
tion form at least one week prior to our
event, campus police were notified of
our event as per normal procedure and
campus pol ice were not initially called
to our event because of a disturbance.
APU was told that in order to re
serve a room in the Nebraska Union,
we needed to get various signatures.
Those signatures were to come from
our adviser, staff people in the union
reservations office and the student
activities and funds office. The final
approval came from the Office for
Student Involvement. We were never
instructed to get signatures from cam
pus police. There is space on the event
registration form specifically for the
signatures of the aforementioned peo
ple, but not for campus police.
Although the incidents are different, I con
tinue to ask myself, when will justice be
served when injustice is committed?
APU had all the necessary paper
work turned in for the event. From our
understanding, as long as we called
the police department and they were
made aware of the event, then we
could turn in our form. The event
registration form also states in bold
print: “An event is not officially ap
proved until this form has been re
turned to the Office for Student In
volvement and received final approv
al signature.” If there had been no
event registration form turned in, the
event would not have been allowed to
take place. Since we didn’t hear any
thing back, we thought everything
was OK.
The initial call placed to campus
police was not made because of any
disturbance. They were called only to
make their presence known to those
attending the event. APU’s treasurer,
who placed the call, was told by a
campus police officer that an officer
would be sent out to monitor the event
temporarily. After almost two hours
and no sign of police, the treasurer
again called campus police. The sec
ond call was because of minor distur
bances at our event. A few moments
later, campus police arrived, remained
for about 10 minutes and left.
Now that I have established that
APU did everything it was supposed
to do, the fact remains that Ong was
assaulted outside of the union, not in
the ballroom. Security at the event
would not have prevented what took
place outside. APU cannot and will
not take full responsibility for what
took place outside of its event.
There was no need to escort any
one out of Rapfest because those who
were causing disturbances left on their
own. There was no indication that
those who left Rapfest were going to
cause problems outside, and there is
still no indication that those same
individuals assaulted Ong. It was
homecoming weekend, and many
groups of people were on campus that
night.
I am not here to put the blame on
anyone because that is irrelevant at
this point. What is relevant is the fact
that Ong was severely injured alleg
edly without a motive. Although Ong
was Malaysian, I strongly believe this
was not a racially motivated incident.
I don’t believe these men set out to
maliciously attack a Malaysian stu
dent before the night was over. But I
can’t speak for them. I am just makina
my own observation from what took
place that night.
I am not trying to justify by any
means the act of violence that took
place that night, but if we are to
evaluate the situation, we must eval
uate the whole thing and not just bits
and pieces.
I do believe it is time for these
young men, whoever they may be,
to admit the night $ot out of hand and
to publicly apologize for their acts. It
is time for them to come forth and take
on the responsibility they took on that
night. I realize this will not take away
the pain and suffering Ong has faced,
but it will start to break down the
racial wall they built that night and
ease the minds of other international
students. After all, it takes a boy to
walk away from his responsibilities,
but it takes a man to stand up and
admit he was wrong.
Uadi Kay Morgaa b a tea lor broadcast
lag major aad prealdcat of the Afrikaa Peo
ple* Uatoa.
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The Pakistan Students Association would
like to thank the following students for
making Pakistan Nite '93 a success.
Devindran Chelliah
Raj Joshi
May Quen
Faraz Hajoory
Aya Horikawa
Saad Alui
Iqbal Ahad
Saud Shaikh
Nabeel Memon
Amir Mangi
Ahmad Faraz
Kashif Hassan
Ayyaz Siddiqi
Farooq Majeed
Rehaan Naqvi
Asim Siddiqi
Ali Sohwiwaza
Noman Khan
Masroor Malik
Zahid Nazir
Yousuf Qureshi
Asif Hasan
Zahid Qureshi
Adnan Anwar
Nabeel Hannan
Amaar Hyder
Omar Farooq
Tauseef Nagi
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