Carb counters, calorie watchers and health-conscious dorm dwellers will have a new online tool at their disposal in the fall, which will help them plan a cafeteria meal that suits their dietary desires.

Net Nutrition will allow MSU students to get the nutritional facts of a single item offered on the menu that day, or they can combine items and get the facts of each daily meal.

It will be featured on www.eatatstate.com. Its creators are aiming to have the site running by the beginning of the fall semester.

"It's a guide just like any nutrition label on any package," said Cindy Baswell, menu development coordinator for the Residence Halls Food Services.

"But it's never going to give step-by-step instructions on how to lose weight or anything like that."

The introduction of the tool is receiving mixed reactions from some MSU health experts. Ronda Bokram, health educator at Olin Health Center, opposed providing the service when it was discussed last year.

"I hope I'm totally wrong, but my experience after working here 19 years is, yes, there's potential for negative impact," Bokram said. "People who worry about the ingredients in the recipes are people who are over-concerned with the numbers, like calories, fat and carbs.

"They're more on the disordered-eating side."

Scott Sehnert, an MSU sports nutritionist, recently planned the menus for the summer football camp, and he said he's excited to teach athletes how to effectively use the tool.

"I'm going to use it a lot with my athletes because people in the cafeteria, being students and athletes, haven't prepared the food, they don't know what all is done to it," he said.

"You can make general assumptions if something is grilled it's going to be better off than if it's fried," he said. "But if it's grilled and they put a tablespoon of butter on it … you just have a lot of fat added to it."

Some students, like business administration sophomore Mohnish Das, are comfortable not knowing what's in their food.

"There's got to be plenty of healthy things you can get," said Das, who will live in Wilson Hall in the fall. "I don't need to go on the Internet to check what my meal is going to be. It's too much work. I just want to go into the cafeteria and get something to eat."

There will be some students, like Das, who use Net Nutrition once and then decide that it is too much work, Bokram said. Others will use it to unnecessarily restrict their diet by cutting out fat, carbohydrates and calories, she said.

Sehnert said he also believes the tool can be misused by people who have an unhealthy fixation on food.

"Some people could probably take it to an extent where they really shouldn't as far as over focusing on counting calories and that sort of deal," he said.

Rather than focusing on what not to eat, it is better for someone to eat based on how they feel and how hungry they are, Sehnert said. Putting a stigma on certain foods can eventually result in overindulgence, he added.

"When you're told not to think of a purple elephant, you think of a purple elephant," Sehnert said. "So when you tell yourself 'I can't eat it, I can't eat it,' you'll probably get to the point where you end up eating a whole lot of it."

For those looking to include essential nutrients in their meals, Net Nutrition can be beneficial, Bokram said.

For example, vegetarians can ensure they are getting the proper amount of protein, and students also can research what foods will replenish their bodies after periods of physical activity, Bokram said.

"If they're going to be running and they want to make sure they have 70 grams of carbohydrates when they get back from an hour and a half run, they can use it for that," she said.

Once the tool goes live, Bokram said she will start making efforts to teach students how to use the service properly.

"I'm going to train students who are peer educators to go out and give programs on how to use it," she said. "But you're not going to reach everyone."

According to a 2006 MSU study, 39 percent of MSU students who are not overweight are trying to lose weight.

"That's why I see problems here," she said. "We're giving them more materials to get smaller when they're not overweight to begin with."