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By Cameron Zargar

Daily Bruin Contributor

During their first days at UCLA, most freshmen, already feeling the pressure of adjusting to a major academic institution, also bear the discomfort of being away from the familiarity of home cooking.

For Lisa Kingery, a fourth-year art history student, this adjustment has meant a growth in independence.

“You get away from home, all night you’re studying and eating pizza,” Kingery said, referring to her freshman year. “After you pass the initial flip-out period, you realize that you’re the one who takes care of yourself and that’s what causes you to grow up.”

For a number of students, adapting to life away from home is less about growing up than about struggling to meet dietary religious standards.

Muslim students, who must only eat halal food permissible in Islam, Jewish students, who choose to keep kosher, and other students with specific needs, often find few choices in residence halls or in typical campus restaurants.

To accommodate their needs, these students who would normally eat an average amount of the specific meat and meat products , now rely more on vegetarian dishes.

Mohammad Mertaban, a second-year math and applied science student as well as a practicing Muslim, said he felt the adjustments he made while living in the residence halls have improved his health, both physically and spiritually.

“It is beneficial to my health because I am forced to refrain from meat,” Mertaban said. “I eat pasta, a lot of salad, breads and cereals.”

Mertaban said he also felt the change has helped him in building his character.

“The challenge has strengthened my faith,” he added.

According to Mertaban, UCLA should cater to students who choose to follow their religious teachings.

“I would like to see the proud institution of UCLA make an effort to accommodate students with religious guidelines like myself,” Mertaban said.

While the residence dining services may not serve halal or kosher meat, the institution does pride itself on quality dining, according to Charles Wilcots, Assistant Director of Dining Services.

“There is a wide variety of various types of dishes for everybody from sushi to mushroom sandwiches,” Wilcots said. “We want to treat our restaurants as restaurants.

“UCLA has been recognized as one of the top ten colleges in terms of dining services,” he continued.

While students generally do find a great variety of foods in the residence halls, some students often grow tired of the repetitive flavors of dorm food, according to Khoa Nguyen, a third-year biology student.

Nguyen said that while, at first, he was enticed by the great variety and buffet-like atmosphere of the dorm cafeterias, the amusement has worn off.

“The dorm food is good for the first two weeks,” he said. “Then after a while the menu repeats itself.”

Nguyen, though, has avoided various food groups offered, choosing instead to rely on a mostly-meat, minimal-vegetable diet.

“I eat a lot of meat, steak, mixing in fruit and vegetables just a little,” he said.

According to Nguyen, his own diet and the observations he has made on other students has indicated gender differences in eating habits.

“Girls eat much healthier – they’re mostly vegetarians,” he said.

Fawnia Cantu, a third-year chemical engineering student, also noticed that while female students eat relatively light meals, consisting of fruits and vegetables, male students eat foods high in carbohydrates and protein.

“Girls are so weight conscious. All they eat is salad,” she said. “Guys are packing on the pounds with meat and bread.”

Not all female students fit the stereotypes associated with them. Brighid Dwyer, a fourth-year sociology student, said that “a lot of cookies and brownies” are a regular part of her diet.

Regardless of eating preferences, the most common type of grocery shopping for students living in apartments consists of an outing to Breadstiks, a small grocery store located in Westwood.

Employees at the store have noticed that numerous students pay little attention to health guidelines, such as those suggested in the food pyramid.

Jonas Ball, a Breadsticks employee and UCLA alumnus, said that students mostly purchase spaghetti and boxed food, such as Top Ramen and cereal.

Like the students, Ball said he too has noticed a distinction between male students and the female students.

“Girls buy fruit and the ready-pack salads,” said Ball. “Guys buy a lot of eggs, cold cuts and yogurt – you know, the high-protein stuff.”

According to Ball, women appear more likely to adhere to nutritionists’ advice than men.

“(The men) probably don’t have the whole diet plan down while the girls seem to have a better idea of the concept of a balanced meal plan,” he said.

Christine Hill, a fourth-year English student, theorized as to why the female students at UCLA eat healthier than their male counterparts.

Hill said that cooking together with her roommates at home instead of going to restaurants has contributed to her eating healthier food.

“I coordinate what I eat with what my roommates eat,” Hill said. “We cook together.

“In the apartments, socially, girls eat together more,” she continued. “Guys may tend toward the quick meal – fast food, or those frozen things,” she continued.

As in the apartments, eating together seems to provide a sense of community for those students in fraternities and sororities as well.

While these institutions can often provide a feeling of kinship away from home, the food students choose to eat does not necessarily resemble home cooking, according to Aaron Kessler, who graduated this summer with a major in business economics.

“I eat mostly sandwiches, turkey, peanut butter,” Kessler, who lived in a fraternity house, said. “We cook for ourselves.”

Like other students, Kessler’s eating habits have changed from home, but they still adhere to nutritional standards of some sort

“I try to stay away from fast food and foods high in carbs,” Kessler said.