Does USF's Fresh Food Company offer low calorie meals?

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 estimates that the average moderately active man needs 2,200 to 2,800 calories each day to maintain a healthy body weight.  According to livestrong.com and USA Today journalist Nina Hauptman, the average woman 19-26 years old needs about 2,200 calories per day.  For a person needing 2300 calories, this averages to 767 calories per meal.  USF’s Fresh Foods offers little variety for this meal plan.

The grill’s BBQ beef and cheddar melt contains 398 calories.  Fresh foods most caloric item is the Honey lemon BBQ rotisserie chicken (695 calories).  Not far behind is the chipotle orange rotisserie chicken (653 calories).  One side that contains 303 calories is the southwest sweet potato. 

The Comfort zone only offers a few healthy sides like diced fresh tomatoes, broccoli (19 calories), sautéed zucchini and tomatoes (40 calories). They offer entrees like roasted turkey (90 calories), baked chipotle- orange chicken (192 calories), and home style fish fillet (254 calories) once a week.  Some of the unhealthy options they provide are the Cheeseburger pie (603 calories) and the beef and fire salsa burrito (448 calories).

Some healthy sides are found in the American zone.  The American zone provides steamed yellow squash (17 calories), vegetables, spinach (67 calories), and charro beans for lunch.  These are generally considered healthy foods but the American zone only offers two of these sides a day for lunch.

As for the Deli and side salads area, they offer the mini tuna salad sandwich (175 calories) but they pair it up with their signature chips.  They have mequite, ancho, and Cajun potato chips all containing 300+ calories each.  Their honey Dijon chicken wrap totals up to 466 calories.

The average food station at fresh foods only serves about 3 different entrees a day.  They have nutritional options such as the roasted turkey or the tuna salad sandwich but their lack of variety tempts students to choose unhealthy items such as the honey lemon BBQ rotisserie chicken.