It’s 1 a.m. on a nondescript Thursday, and the line for
Puzzles Eatery is out the door.
As a BruinCard swipes with an affirmative beep and order numbers
are yelled out one after another, students chatter excitedly in
anticipation of the burgers, burritos and french fries soon to be
filling their stomachs.
“When you’re hungry, you’re hungry,”
said Vince Lee, a first-year mechanical engineering student
patiently waiting for his chili cheese dog and curly fries.
Such a scene at the popular on-campus eatery might be enough to
give a nutritionist a heart attack.
“I assumed it was pretty unhealthy. … I’m not
really too concerned about it,” said second-year computer
science and engineering student Brad Michael.
Other students wonder about the food’s dietary value but
just don’t want to know.
“If I do check it and realize it sucks, I’ll never
eat here again,” said Jigish Patel, a first-year computer
science and engineering student.
But Patel and any other student searching for the nutritional
content of Puzzles’s food would be out of luck: For most
items, no such information is available.
UCLA Dining Services provides nutrition facts for many of the
foods served in on-campus eateries via its Web site, but the list
is incomplete, and the portion sizes often are vague, especially
for Puzzles.
Chili cheese fries ““ french fries smothered with handfuls
of melted cheese and topped with a big scoop of chili ““ are
popular at Puzzles, but their nutrition information is nowhere to
be found on Dining’s Web site.
Double cheeseburgers, personal pizzas and clam chowder sourdough
bread bowls also are absent.
Charles Wilcots, Dining Services assistant director, called the
omissions an “oversight” and said he would have to ask
the Dining Services nutritionist about the issue.
Even with the lack of information, some nutrition experts say
the menu decisions at Puzzles, though popular, do not promote
healthy eating habits.
“Basically, it’s a good way to make money for the
university because they’re getting foods that they like, but
it’s not catering toward a healthy lifestyle for the
student,” said physiological science Professor Christian
Roberts.
“Most students have no concept of what a poor diet is, and
(Puzzles) is only reinforcing that lack of knowledge,” he
added.
Roberts teaches “Issues in Human Physiology: Diet and
Exercise,” a general education course designed to inform
students about the roles diet and exercise play in health and
disease prevention. The class, offered nearly every quarter,
consistently fills to near its 400-student capacity.
James Barnard, who also teaches the course, echoed
Roberts’s concerns regarding UCLA’s financial motives
and said students’ eating such food before bedtime makes the
problem even worse.
Barnard said during sleep, blood circulation is at its slowest,
and a high-fat meal floating around in the bloodstream is more
likely to get into artery walls.
While this probably won’t cause a heart attack in a young
person, Barnard said studies show most heart attacks occur late at
night, following a meal high in fat, suggesting that cholesterol
clogs arteries the most during sleep.
But Wilcots said even if Puzzles didn’t exist, surveys
conducted by Dining Services show students would just seek burgers
and burritos somewhere else.
Wilcots also said Puzzles was created specifically as a result
of student surveys and focus groups. It is tailored to student
requests for speed and convenience.
“We evolved our menus around residents, in terms of what
they wanted, in terms of what was quick,” Wilcots said.
Asked about the possibility of expanding Puzzles’s menu,
Wilcots said the eatery’s small size and limited storage
space limits what it can serve and said his department always is
open to suggestions.
The Student Nutrition (and Body Image) Action Committee,
developed in cooperation with groups including the Student Health
and Wellness Center and Dining Services, gives students tips on
eating healthy and exercising via informational flyers on tables in
dining halls and a Web site.
On the Web site, SNAC has a number of ideas for late-night
eating, but many students think it is unlikely they will give up
their beloved Puzzles food for “a small cup of edamame
(boiled soybeans)” or “a small 3-ounce can of tuna with
4 to 6 low-fat crackers.”
“Hell no,” said Hooman Daneshmand, second-year
mechanical engineering student. “If you’re a health
nut, do the smoothies.”
Connie Foster, Dining Services associate director, said Puzzles
does provide healthy meal options like chicken breast sandwiches
and veggie burgers in addition to the burgers and fries.
But ultimately, Foster said, “It’s up to students to
choose what they want to eat.”