There are a few activities that most people associate with college students: studying (of course), drinking alcohol, and eating lots of food like the growing teens and twenty-somethings that we are. Now, I love to eat just as much as the next person, but when it comes to eating dinner in the dorms, the last thing I want is a Hot Pocket oozing with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, imitation mozzarella cheese, and artificial butter flavor with a side of distilled monoglycerides and L-Cysteine hydrochloride.

If that doesn’t sound disgusting enough, just imagine all of the aspartame, olestra, saccharin, and food dyes you consume each time you head in to Good 2 Go or The Mix for that afternoon snack.

If that doesn’t make you want to go organic right this minute, think about all of the extra calories that these wonderful “foods” add to your daily intake. If I had options like those offered in West’s convenience store, Sisu, when I lived in the dorms during my freshman year, I probably could have successfully avoided that dreaded Freshman Fifteen.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Sisu carries all organic products, as well as tons of fresh fruits, salads, and even home-made peanut butter spreads. Now, before you stop listening, just think about this: organic products are made out of things that actually exist in nature. This means that the likelihood of consuming them leading to illnesses is much lower, and also that they probably taste better (unless you just can’t get over the fresh taste of processed cocoa and modified wheat starch that you get in those Pop Tarts each morning).

The problem with healthy eating on campus is that it usually takes a lot of effort. Normally, in order to have a meal with actual nutritional value, on-campus students must somehow find a car, drive to the grocery store, and then remember that they don’t actually have a kitchen to cook any of the foods that they bought. With Sisu there are endless options, ranging from fresh made salads and sandwiches to protein bars, meal bars, and small bags of snacks. When you frequent Sisu, the days of using the “I’m unhealthy because I don’t have time to make nutritional meals for myself” excuse are no more than a distant memory.

I live off campus now and still make the occasional trip to Sisu because, yes, I enjoy eating foods with ingredients I can see and pronounce. I’m not going to judge you for enjoying cereal flavored with Butylated Hydroxytoluene (also used in jet fuel and lighter fluid), but I think I’ll stick with some good old fashioned whole grains.

Also, according to Wikipedia, the term Sisu means “strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity.” Bad. Ass.

Click here for Greg Schlosser’s side of the Onward Debate.