Performance Dining program promotes healthy eating at Wake Forest

The student body at Wake Forest University has had a statistically high prevalence of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction. To address that situation, the school’s Deacon Dining department and dining services partner Aramark launched an extended health and wellness education initiative in fall 2016 called Performance Dining, which has since grown to become a multifaceted program that incorporates education and residential dining stations tailored to the distinct dietary needs and preferences of Wake Forest students, athletes, faculty and staff.

The crux of the program is a shift away from a calorie-driven diet mentality to one that focuses on understanding foods and their functions in an easy-to-understand format. To do that, the program keys in on nine specific subjects: high-energy foods, proteins, “smart eats,” hydration, recovery, immune support, bone health, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods.

Performance Dining encourages students to convert from calorie-driven eating to one that emphasizes foods that have various beneficial impacts on health and well-being.

In the dining venues, Performance Dining essentially becomes a personalization of the government’s MyPlate program with a color-coded plate graphic providing a visual and simple format to building a nutritionally balanced meal for any time of day.

For example, since a Wake Forest study of its students found that they only ate one or two servings of vegetables a day, the largest section of the Performance Dining Plate is reserved for non-starchy vegetables.

Surveys also found that the students care about the impact of their food choices on the environment. That, along with studies that indicate a correlation between increased vegetable intake and decreased incidence of disease, is reflected on the Performance Dining Plate with two shades of orange encouraging the consumption of plant proteins so that half of a person’s daily protein intake comes from plant sources.

The shift in animal protein serving size also allows Deacon Dining to purchase more sustainable meat products, which in turn helps increase student satisfaction with the department’s commitment to sustainability.

The navy colored section of the plate is designed to combat fad diet promotions that say carbohydrates are “bad,” instead suggesting that healthy high-energy carbohydrates be consumed at each meal, all of which can be found in the residential dining platform.

Fat, hydration and fruit components complete the plate with nutrient-dense whole foods that impact overall meal satiety.

One of the spice bar displays at the residential dining hall Performance Dining station, which allows students to customize the flavoring of their selections in a healthy way.

The Performance Dining program extended into Wake Forest’s main residential dining hall a year after its debut through the conversion of the venue’s salad bar into a formal Performance Dining station. Deacon Dining’s registered dietitian conducted extensive research and interviewed a variety of students to ensure that the station menu would meet guest needs.

The success of this approach can be measured by a 30-point leap in the station’s customer satisfaction score since the debut of Performance Dining there, and may also have played a significant role in a 17-percent jump in voluntary meal plan sales.

The station includes everything needed to build a complete Performance Dining Plate or to add to or increase the nutrient density of a meal from another station in the dining venue.

Perhaps the most innovative feature of the station is that in addition to the wide variety of carbohydrates, vegetables, proteins and fruits offered, it incorporates an extensive spice bar that includes a variety of organic oils, vinegars and more than 15 different spices and seeds that diners can use to flavor or enhance their dishes. The spice bar also serves an educational function as it teaches students how to infuse flavors into foods and basically become their own chefs.

The spice bar proved so popular that it prompted a student-led global foods organization to collaborate with Deacon Dining on designing a special Asian-themed spice bar to make infused taste from across the globe a flavoring option.

In addition to the spice bar and the meal components, the Performance Dining station also has a hydration station component that offers guests the choice of ultra-purified sparkling, still and room temperature waters and Rain Forest Certified teas.

The spice bar initiative includes a substantial educational component that teaches students how to use various spices either alone or in combination.

An additional benefit of the Performance Dining program generally was how it has helped the campus deal with national menu labeling issues. All facilities around the Wake Forest campus are compliant with national menu labeling and incorporate the Performance Dining education component to combat the focus on calorie-driven eating.

Educational examples of Performance Dining include “plate of the day” suggestions and “how to” builds and tips for successful plant-forward dining. These resources guide students in creating a Performance Dining plate at every dining station.

In addition to its digital and print education efforts, Deacon Dining provides pop-up education events focused on Performance Dining across the campus, frequently partnering with various university departments such as the office of well-being, campus recreation, the college of health and exercise science, the chaplain’s office, the Intercultural Center and the university corporate center to extend the reach of the program beyond just dining venues. These partnerships may have been a key factor in a jump of more than 80 extra faculty/staff meal plans sold in the 2017-2018 school year compared to 2016-2017, including to athletic coaches, strength/conditioning staff members and even weight management groups.

Given the overwhelmingly positive campus response to Performance Dining, Deacon Dining recently decided to use the program at its community building day, where it provided a healthy meal and education to more than a hundred underserved kids and adults from the surrounding community. The program has also been used in the dining program’s partnership with the WFU Pro Humanitate community initiative Kids Cooking Coalition, which is designed to provide healthy food exposure and cooking skills to children in low-income areas through a seven-week course.

This fall, Deacon Dining dietitians will provide snippets of Performance Dining education at pre-service meetings with front-line dining staff to encourage more healthy eating habits.