It's 1am and, in the centre of town, dolled-up students pour out of bars and clubs and rush to join the queue for a burger and chips at one of several kebab vans lining the street. The talk is of essay deadlines and early morning tutorials. The food is cheap, fattening and very popular.
This could be any student town in Britain but in fact it is Oxford, where the famous dreamy spires are bathed in the smell of fast food every night. This might be one of the world's top universities but, like students across the country, Oxford undergraduates are eating their way out of essay crises, and spending only £4 a day doing it.
I witness these scenes because I too am a student at Oxford. Every week I eat my way through whole packets of pasta and, like my friends, notice a difference between eating habits - and waistlines - in term time and during the holidays.
"I do eat crap at uni," admits 20-year-old English student Danielle Abbiss. "I spend a lot on snack food, like chocolate and biscuits, and at lunchtime I am lazy so I buy sandwiches in town. Although I can cook, it just doesn't happen during term time. There's so much work that cooking a proper meal takes too much time. I end up eating at my college's hall, where they tend to serve curry and chips."
Matter of convenience
Our problem is not ignorance: we aspire to buy organic local produce and cook a meal from scratch every night. But with a couple of essays to do every week, convenience often takes precedence.
Lindsey Johnston, a second-year psychology student at St Hilda's College, says, "In my first term at Oxford I put on half a stone, so I'm definitely aware that my diet at uni is much worse than at home. My college food is really stodgy, but I have to eat there to use up the compulsory £100 meal credits."
A recent investigation by a student newspaper, The Oxford Student, into diet and lifestyle found that nearly three-quarters of the 100 respondents said they felt less healthy during term time. Forty-eight per cent said their student lifestyle did not allow for healthy eating and regular exercise, and half said work-related stress increased their appetite.
Sometimes the effects are drastic, as Laurence Grendal found in his fresher term. "In the first month at university I put on a lot of weight. We'd go out clubbing and then tuck into chips. I learned from my mistake when my clothes didn't fit and I didn't have enough money to buy more."
British teenagers are not alone: in America, the weight gain at university has been dubbed "Freshman 15", a name given to the new student who puts on an average of 15 pounds from a diet of all-you-can-eat dorm-dining, late-night pizzas, tacos, barbecues and beer. And a study called Generation XL by the Obesity Society in the US found that students are succumbing to the temptation of unlimited and unsupervised food choices.
It was this student profile that led Tamara Schiopu, organiser of the Oxford branch of Slow Food, to take a stand.
"Spending £4 a day on food, I can only imagine what goes into the average student's stomach," she says. "It doesn't surprise me that undergraduates are putting on weight and getting depressed due to their diet."
I meet Schiopu on a wet November evening at local foodie cafe The Vault, where she is hosting her group's first student event. The tables are full of enthusiastic students and the focus of attention is the colourful array of food we're about to be served for dinner.
At my table, 19-year-old Abby Schlageter discusses the difference in the food her family, which is American, eats at home and her term-time diet.
"My family meals are super, super healthy," she explains. "Lots of short-grain brown rice and stir-fried vegetables. In term time I put on weight, even though I'm slim and had been the same weight for years before coming to Oxford. My friends who are students in America have 24-hour food available on campus, and there is lots of junk food - but there are more salad options too, and there everyone does sport. I find it hard to stay healthy at uni here."
It's this attitude that the Slow Food group hopes to combat. As we sit down to a meal of porcini mushroom risotto, goats' cheese penne, roasted vegetables and salads, the whole room is surprised to hear that this meal has been cooked using the quoted £4 budget, all with fresh, healthy produce.
Over dinner, Silvija Davidson, of the London branch of Slow Food, discusses the group's aim of promoting the social and environmental benefits of slow - as opposed to fast - food.
Will Paget, the cafe's owner, extols the benefits of buying from farmers' markets, and a local producer talks about the true cost of growing food and the friends his student daughter made through the big meals she cooked for fellow students.
The Slow Foodies are keen to point out that they don't expect us to buy exclusively local, organic meals. "Our aim is to show students that cooking can be social, and to make clear the benefits of buying in bulk and cooking from scratch," says Schiopu.
Bon appetit
And at The Vault's tables, the message is heard loud and clear. The food is delicious and all around the room people are asking, "Why can't hall food be like this?"
Ted Maxwell, the only student member of Oxford's Slow Food group, says, "I give food a higher priority than the average student - I'm prepared to spend more for quality. I support seasonal, locally produced foods as much as possible - it's part of the fun of cooking, and this is a message I want to pass on."
While Oxford's Slow Food group continues to spread this message, it seems students across the country are following the bad-food trend. Ian Harris, a student at Loughborough, says, "I put on a stone in my first year - I eat ready meals for convenience because I'm busy with my course and socialising. I spend about £25 a week on supermarket food and another £15 on takeaways."
This is a dangerous trend, says Anna Denny, a nutritional scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, who warns that food has a "massive" impact on how the body and mind function. "No single food can provide all the essential nutrients that the body needs," she says. "So problems arise if students consume a limited diet. A knowledge of how to eat healthily will ensure that you give yourself the best chance of making the most of your time at university."
As closing time beckons at The Vault, a prize draw ensures students leave laden with fresh vegetable boxes, cookery books, foodie gifts, wine and meal vouchers.
The students are unanimous in their praise of the organisers, and vow to improve their eating habits. But drawing students across British campuses away from fast food and ready meals is a long-term project.
Can the cookery book beat the kebab van? Only time will tell.
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