What's in your fast food?
By Samantha Pirc, Campus Life writer
April 17, 2008 | 6 a.m.
Students at Ohio University will be given the chance Thursday, April 17 to learn why consuming over 7,000 Chipotle burritos in one day is not the healthiest decision.
The Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning Lab (VITAL) is offering the educational technology workshop, “American and Ethnic Fast Food and You,” which seeks to educate the public about what they are really eating in ethnic and American fast food.
As part of Minority Health Month, the workshop will feature a presentation by Charlene Kopchick, director of Ohio University’s Department of Health Promotion. Kopchick will show how to make better nutritional decisions when eating fast food.
Attendees will also play the newly improved “Nutrition Game,” developed by VITAL Lab graduate student Tessa Cooper and Minority Health Month project coordinator Jeremy Yates.
The team first developed the game in 2007 as part of the Games for Health Competition presented by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It originally featured three separate restaurants that allowed the virtual visitor to make nutritional food choices.
In order to give users more choices and to reflect a more realistic diet, Yates added seven additional restaurants to form a food court that resembles a shopping mall's eating area. The food court now has Italian, Indian, Mexican, Chinese and soul-food themed eateries among others.
The “Nutrition Game” takes place in Second Life—a virtual environment—and allows students to order meals in the virtual fast food court, telling them the amount of calories, fat and cholesterol they would be consuming in the real world.
The workshop will allow students to use avatars, or virtual representations, which can be manipulated to represent their own height and weight.
The nutrition information they get through the game can be applied in real life, said Yates, a senior digital media major.
Based on the information entered, the game can calculate the amount of weight the player would gain in a week, month and year after eating the fast food they ordered, as well as show certain health problems that might arise.
“Everyone has to make choices with fast food,” Yates said. “[The game] drives home the consequences of your choices.”
Yates said the game can help international students who are unfamiliar with American fast food restaurants, and help others take a look at their caloric budget.
“It isn’t saying you can never have [fast food],” said Yates, who reiterated that it simply comes down to thinking before you order.
The game is currently on the teen grid of Second Life, which means it is only available to those 17 years old and younger. Depending on its success, however, the game could be moved to the OU “island” in Second Life, and made available to students.
“Yes, it’s in a virtual world. But it’s not just because we can,” Yates said. “[The game] is part of a whole initiative to use technology for educational purposes. Think of it as a food diary—just a little more high tech.”
Students can attend the “American and Ethnic Fast Food and You” workshop from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 17 at the OU Computer Services Center computer lab on West Union Street.
---