At the tailend of midterms and with the promise of vacation jut around the corner, Harvard students can barely balance their schedules, let alone their diets.

But while most Harvard students interrupted during dinner this week were discussing paper topics or the latest house gossip, a few select tables were engaging in an equally hallowed Harvard tradition: griping about the food.

Michael Hartl '96 says he chooses his dinner carefully. Although a casual observer might assume from Hartl's painstaking attention to nutrition that he is training for a decathalon or possibly a swimsuit competion, Hartl says he is merely keeping in shape. hall counter. Hartl, who admits he oftenchooses his dinner with an eye to Harvard DiningServices' (HDS) new "Nutrition Bites" nutrientcounters, says tonight's choice--spaghetti withmarinara sauce and meatballs, and a salad oflettuce and broccoli--is fairly standard.

But Hartl says he does not need the newnutrient counters to help determine his diet."This is not a rocket science," says Hartl, as heexplains his choice. "Broccoli, for example, is ahealthy food, everybody knows that."

Nutrition Bites HDS

In an attempt to bring students healthy foodswhich conform to USDA standards of healthy eating,Director of HDS Michael P. Berry says the newNutrition Bites program which hit dining hallslast month will teach students to make healthychoices about their diets.

"I hope that what's happened is that we'vetried to educate students about their choices,"Berry says.

This month HDS kicked off the "Healthy Options"segment of the Nutrition Bites program.

Each day several options on the lunch anddinner menus will be marked with a strawberryindicating they are part of the "Healthy Options"program.

Foods marked with a strawberry have less thanor equal to 350 calories per serving, less than orequal to 12 grams of fat per serving, less than orequal to 13 grams of protein per serving and lesstan or equal to 57 grams of carbohydrates perserving.

But some students worry that the emphasis onnumbers serves only to increase the worries ofalready weight-conscious students, withoutassuring them that some intake of the calories,fats, carbohydrates and proteins listed on thecards are essential to healthy eating.

At the outset of the nutrition program, HDSshared many of these concerns. To deal with them,Berry says he organized a series of discussiongroups centered around eating conreads about 300to 400 response cards each week, says the he hasreceived about 200 or 300 praising the programwhile only a handful have expressed concern.

Furthermore the Healthy Options program is onlyone facet of what he intends to be a largerprogram of healthy eating at Harvard, according toBerry.

Shirley Hung, a first-year graduate student atthe School of Public Health and the nutritionconsultant hired by Berry as part of his plan,says she has been visiting the houses duringdinner since October.

"[The Healthy Option] has to be taken incontext of the food pyramid," Hung says. "Youcan't really just take the entree and fit it intothe food pyramid. We're trying to promote thispyramid in terms of the most optimal eatinghabits."