Losing weight is the number one New Year’s resolution, according to PRWeb.com.

Taste or Waist, an event held every year by Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine Tim Harvey, seeks to promote this ideal in an easy way—making the same recipes healthier, without changing the appearance or texture of the item.

Harvey started the event to encourage his students to make more health conscious food choices while bringing in the new year. The rules are simple: students pick dishes that may be particularly unhealthy and then re-work the recipes using low, sometimes non-fat ingredients.

As part of the challenge, taste and texture cannot be sacrificed, and the dishes must appear identical.

At the event, each recipe can be sampled and tasters can record which one they think is the healthier version. According to Harvey, more than half of the guesses are wrong.

“Everyone thinks they have to sacrifice taste or texture if they want to eat healthier, and that just isn’t true. This event really tends to emphasize that,” Harvey said.

“It takes seven days to create a habit, and eight weeks to break one, so why not make our habits good ones?”
Around the new year, when many are making resolutions to go for a salad rather than a burger, this is a healthy reminder that it doesn’t always have to be one or the other.

Junior Josue Martinez said, “That’s a very solid idea due to the fact that many restaurants and food products only exist to satisfy their clientele. I feel like that will help clarify what corporations care more about: taste, and thus profits or our health.”

Some dishes being made by Harvey’s students include creamy bacon mushroom soup, Frito cheese dip and classic spaghetti with meat sauce.

Below, a chart lists the recipes, changes made to them and nutritional information after the changes.

Tickets to last year’s event were only 25 cents per sample and are expected to be the same this year. A non-perishable canned food item can also be used as payment.

“It definitely sounds beneficial to anyone focusing more on nutrition and diet or who wants to pick up some easy, new recipes,” senior Colin Farabaugh said.

Junior Mark Vidunas also liked the idea of the event.

“I think the event is a good idea because it informs students both how unhealthy some foods are and also how they can make healthier food choices without giving up their favorite foods,” he said.

Taste or Waist will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 11, in the Herrmann Student Union Great Room from 12:30 to 2 p.m.