Yesterday while taking my walk, I decided to walk around my alma mater, The University of Mary Washington formerly Mary Washington College. It’s named after the mother of George Washington who made her home in Fredericksburg. I got to thinking about what college food is like these days, and how a person might or might not be able to stick to the blood type diet at college.

So, I went into the dining area and asked the person checking the students in, if I could look at the food to right a column and she said go right ahead. Wow, I was so impressed.

The only other experience of looking at college food was when my children went to college 13 and 14 years ago. And that food wasn’t so appetizing. Since I attended nursing school, I only ate hospital cafeteria food and everyone knows what that is like. It was the regular meat and potatoes and overcooked vegetables back then. And I ate huge amounts of food for all three meals. At 18, my metabolism was so high, and I was very thin, and could eat like a suma wrestler. I usually had eggs and toast and meat for breakfast. A full meal for lunch and dinner, and sometimes I would get an extra portion of meat. Then I had my dessert, and my two friend’s desserts because they were always on diets. I never gained a pound the entire three years. But in retrospect, what a horrible diet for someone with type A blood.

And even though I attended Mary Washington College for 9 years part time for a bachelors and master’s degree, I was an adult living at home at the time and never once looked at the college food.

So, how does this college food compare? Well, anyone on the blood type eating plan could fair very well at this university’s food. There were three rooms of different types of food. One room had a very well stocked salad bar, and all kinds of pizza and finger foods. Another room had hamburgers and cheeseburgers and more fast type foods, but it looked like a type O and B could fair very well there. And they had two pasta stations one especially for gluten free students. The third room had a more traditional dinner type foods along with a Mediterranean diet island with pasta and stir fry and a special stir fry booth for gluten free diets. Type A’s could certainly eat a stir fry or from the salad bar and bring their own tempeh or tofu. Type O’s could benefit from the gluten free stations with the choice of grains. It was such a quick walk through that I could have gotten the rooms mixed up, but the extent of the choices was absolutely fabulous.

The variety for one day was so great, that even a repeat could really give each blood type several options. The students should not get bored with the food anytime soon. They really seemed to be offering a lot of food considered healthy choices. This university food could be a model of institutional food.

Then my creative side of my brain kicked into overdrive and I thought if they wanted to expand, a limited number of older people unable to cook could buy an eating pass, could go there and mingle with the students and get a nutritious diet. I know that sounds nuts, but just looking at the joy the students were experiencing in that dining room seemed something that could be shared however crazy an idea that is.

The bottom line is for the students at The University of Mary Washington, they have got it right. My alma mater passed the blood type diet food test with flying colors. I challenge the college age parents reading this to check out their student’s food. They might be presently surprised, but if their choices aren’t great, maybe they should implore their college or university to check with UMW as a model of healthy college food.