By Lisa Jackson

The typical hand wringing, tear stained mothers of freshman college students put extra effort into making sure all the needs of their newly independent children are met in their first year of school. Karen Neilson, one such mother, was concerned for her son, a student at Brigham Young University. She purchased a meal plan for him that provided him with $28 a week, enough to purchase one meal a day.

"At least I knew he would be able to stop his work on campus and eat a good meal," Neilson said. "He was eating poorly and was very lazy at cooking."

Neilson, a mother of six college alumni, has come to know that this is a common problem among college age adults. She explained that they spend all day at campus studying, and then come home late at night without the energy to cook dinner. The meal plan at BYU eased her worries because her son could get at least one meal a day rather than Rice-A-Roni for every meal.

Although Neilson and her children are in favor of the meal plans, there have been mixed opinions throughout campus of whether the meal plans offer enough healthy choices and competitive prices to be worthwhile to the students. For the past few years, there has been a debate about meal plans at college. When food intake is unregulated, meal plans have been found to be more of a hindrance than a help to Brigham Young University students.

The phrase "freshman 15" has become common phrase, referring to the 15 pounds that freshman who have meal plans typically gain in their first semester at college. Even before he became a student at BYU, sophomore Tyler Bateman became acquainted with the phrase. When his sister, who had a meal plan her freshman year, came home for Christmas, he said he noticed an unquestionable difference in her waistline.

"She definitely gained the freshman 50 ... I mean 15," Bateman said.

After her break she started working out more. Bateman said she still continued to pig out, but this time she tried a little harder to look for healthy substitutes. His sister had difficulty choosing those foods.

Some would agree that the meal plans were too effective. Robin Broberg, a BYU student who had a meal plan her freshman year said that it was difficult to eat healthy food.

"The freshman 15 was in reality more like the freshman 40," Broberg said.

There are select places where this meal plan can be used. These locations include a variety of on campus fast food places, restaurants, and vending machines. Some, but not all, include the Creamery in their plan where the students can buy groceries. Broberg said if the Creamery was involved in all the plans, it would improve them enormously.

Broberg explained that the food gets very boring fast and that sometimes students just want something small, without a full meal to go with it.

Even with the plan that includes the Creamery, students still have mixed feelings.

"I just feel ripped off with the Creamery prices," said Bridget Taylor, a current freshman with a meal plan. "So I feel like the money I'm being forced to spend there could be more wisely spent elsewhere."

Some argue that there aren't enough options while others argue that there are enough choices, but the tastier, unhealthy choices are more convenient.

"There was a lot of convenient food," Broberg said. "But you ended up feeling like a lump of lard when it was all said and done."

Stan Larimer, a former BYU- Idaho student and current BYU- Provo student, is a big fan of the meal plans at Idaho's campus.

"There were always chicken sandwiches, tacos, gyros, and other choices," Larimer said, "and I didn't gain a pound from the food."

He went on to say that you can find similar food on this campus, but you have to make the choice to eat the healthy food.

Neilson agrees with Larimer. He said it would be unfair to say that there are only unhealthy choices on campus.

"They probably have good choices," Neilson said. "But it's tempting when there is tasty food that smells good, prepared and ready right in front of your face."

Neilson believes that the most beneficial change to the meal plan program would also be the inclusion of the Creamery in all the plans and for the dorms to all have kitchens in them, not just a refrigerator.

"When you plan for dinner you shop for what is better for you," Neilson said. "If you go somewhere while you are hungry, you will choose what looks and tastes best."

Broberg said similarly in Deseret Towers, where she resided her freshman year, there was a community kitchen, but there were just too many people per kitchen unit and it was always being used.

For Broberg, the worst part of the meal plans was just how easy it was to get sugary and fatty food. She said that sometimes when she was ticked at school she and her friends would just go out for ice cream, and that happened about three times a week.

"My friends and I were bad influences on each other," Broberg said.

The problem is not the unavailability of healthy choices, it is just the over-availability of unhealthy choices. It is just a lesson for students to use self control to be motivated enough to chose the healthy food.