EATING HABITS
August 22, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Student junk food passion leads to weight gain
By LISA GAUMNITZ Staff Reporter
sent from giving in to the temptation of bad nutritional habits when he comes to college.
Warnings against it do not prevent the average student from giving in to the
Norge Jerome, nutritionist
The person who combines french fries with a salad is making a sound nutritional choice, but one who combines french fries, a hamburger and a shake is eating a meal that is relatively high in fat, sodium and calories.
The temptation to depend on junk food for nutrition takes over when students come to college, away from the watchful eye and guiding hand of a nutrition-conscious mother.
a hard core connoisseur of wine.
And eventually, the late night runs for Joe's donuts, midnight pizzas,
seconds on caferita desserts and the ever present study snack of Coke and M&M's take their toll.
WHEN THE INEVITABLE confrontation with the scale comes, all of the tricks and excuses in the world can't change the fact that the junk food binge has become a habit and the student has fallen victim to the infamous "freshman 10" weight gain.
"I would say there's some real truth to that 'freshman 10,'" Ann Kohl, a dietician at Watkins Memorial Hospital, said. "So many students have come here and have jobs on the weight in the years they are here."
they are here. Norge Jerome, director of the community nutrition division at University of Kansas Medical Center, said that the emotional stress associated with increased social and academic pressures of college played a major role in weight gain.
don't taste like mom's," the choices were available and that it was up to the student to select a well-balanced meal.
"The first year of college represents a serious change in students' lifestyle," she said. "It is their first time away from home, and that produces a stressful situation, which many try to relieve by overeating."
MARIE CROSS, associate professor of human development, said that eating offered an escape from the pressures of finding and fitting into a new circle of friends, adjusting to the newfound independence from parents, and living in the highly competitive college atmosphere.
Eating is a "pick-me-up" that allows students to forget their problems. It is a necessary way to learn, she said, and a wizard for a job well done.
associate with home," Cross said,
"and unfortunately, we don't do it
(reward ourselves) with carrots,
cottage cheese and bread, but with
But, she said, the foods we use to reward ourselves are usually less than nutritionally ideal. Cross has conducted an informal study of past classes which revealed that 60 percent of the students' food choices came from a category titled "sugar, fat and alcohol."
In addition to keeping a record of all the food and beverages consumed in a 24-hour period, participants in the study were asked to list the one or two foods or beverages they would most want to eat in a certain situation and mood.
ICE CREAM WAS the overwhelming favorite listed by the students when they had a bad day. Interestingly, ice cream, along with beer, were the foods most often chosen when they had had a good day and wanted to celebrate.
"
"When we're away from home, reward foods tend to be ones we
nice high-calorie, high-fat foods like ice cream."
Availability, cost, nutritional value and taste are all factors students consider when choosing foods, she said. However, most students allow their tastebuds to win in the end.
AS THE RESULTS of Cross' study suggest, not only do students overheat, but they overheat the wrong kinds of food. She said that over the years she had counseled a number of students who had come to her with weight problems, and most placed the blame on "starchy" cafeteria food.
However, Cross said that she didn't accept that excuse, admitting that while "vegetables cooked for 500
"
While going to college, many students don't select the best nutritional choices, she said, and fill up on too many meat dishes and desserts
In-room snacking also contributes to weight gain because students tend to stock up on junk food and "munchies" with little or no nutritional value rather than fresh fruits and vegetables.
THEOSE STUDENTS WHO shun the cafeteria food often turn to the convenience, reliability and taste of fast food. Jerome said that fast food was relatively low in calcium and vitamins. She said that if students could meet their daily nutritional
requirements through fast foods and could stay within their calorie requirements that was fine.
"But it behooves us to know what we're selecting and to get the right combination," she said. "individually, each food in a restaurant is nutritiously potent; it is the combination that makes the difference and can be detrimental."
Jerome said, "the person who combines french fries with a salad is making a sound nutritional choice, but one who combines french fries, a salad or a soup is eating a meal that is relatively high in fat, sodium and calories."
SUCH A MEAL, at McDonald's contains about 830 calories, 830 milligrams of sodium and 115 grams of carbohydrates, according to the book "Calories and Carbohydrates" by Barbara Kraus.
Now many restaurants have salad bars or offer other low calorie alternatives to their regular fare. Cross said that students should keep in mind that a salad was a nutritious meal, and that the calorie count climbed upward depending on what went in and on the salad.
Eating a well-balanced meal and avoiding snacking between meals can both help prevent weight gain and maintain a desired weight. But should a student find the scale inching upward this fall, Jerome, Cross and Kohl offered tips on how to take off and keep off excess weight.
Cross said that students should realize that the weight was put on
over a relatively long time period, so it would not disappear overnight. Too many students turn to fad diets and diet aids that promise quick and painless losses.
"AST BEST THESE aids are crushes," she said. "Once you get off them, you haven't healed anything."
Because fad dieters haven't changed their eating habits, it is likely that they will gain back the weight they lost once when they resume their normal eating habits, she said.
For a diet to be successful, Cross said, it must represent a change in eating habits. A good diet must also supply all the necessary nutrients and be a reduction in calories from the normal intake.
She, along with Jerome and Kohl, said that exercising was an essential component of weight loss and weight maintenance. Not only will exercising increase the rate at which calories are burned, but it helps self-esteem, Kohl said.
"No foods are taboo," she said. "By helping students to take control over their eating patterns now, we are giving them nutritional information they can use for the rest of their lives."
Changing eating habits means learning to eat anything and everything, Kohl said. So, students can have an occasional pizza, scoop of ice cream or beer.
Eating disorders: Pressure may trigger anorexia, bulimia
By LISA GAUMNITZ Staff Reporter
t all began in high school
Back then she could control gorging herself on food and then ridding herself of unwanted calories by throwing up or starving for days.
Now, although a seemingly well-adjusted college student, it controlled her. Eating became the focal point in her life, and she began to seek escape through food.
In college, the pressure of living up to parents' expectations, and the tremendous social and academic pressures overwhelms some students, some to the point of self-survival.
sUCH EATING DISORDERS SUCH as anorexia nervosa and bulimia affect men and women of all ages, yet they have become increasingly prevalent among young women, according to Andrew Brotman, a psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass.
Anorexia
"Eating disorders have been around for quite some time — anorexia was described as early as the 1600s," said Linda Keeler, psychiatrist and coordinator of mental health services at Watkins Memorial Hospital.
"It not necessarily clear why the problem may be increasing," she said, "but many attribute it to the emphasis on thinness in our culture."
ANORECTICS, LIKE MOST people with eating disorders, have a distorted picture of their body, she said. They continue to view themselves as being overweight even though they may be emaciated.
The national association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Diseases estimated that more than 500,000 victims of eating disorders exist in this country. Researchers say that anorexia afflicts 1 percent of American women between the ages of 12 and 25.
"In the initial stages of the disorder," Kohl said, "the anorectic feels very hungry and her body protests the denial of food, but she is so obsessed with the fear of getting fat that she won't eat."
For anorectics, the eating disorder becomes a statement of self-assertion: Their body is the one thing in their lives they think they have control over, said Ann Kohl, a dietician at Watkins.
Those suffering from anorexia nervosa also undergo visible changes in outward appearance in addition to a drastic weight loss, he said. They experience loss of head hair, and a layer of fine hair grows on their bodies.
The anorectic restricts intake of food sometimes to the point of self-starvation, she said.
treated a number of anorectics.
THE PULSE RATE slows, the body becomes overly sensitive to temperature changes, the victim may become constipated and have an ovulation cease as long as the patient suffers from anorexia, Branson said.
As the anorectic's body adjusts to the low food intake, the metabolism slows down and endocrine functioning is affected, said Vernon Branson, Lawrence pediatrician who has
A 1981 study of college women by Craig Johnson, physician and editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, revealed that 15 to 20 percent practiced bulimic activity
Bulimia
drome, is the uncontrolled consumption of large amounts of food within a short time period followed by purging through abuse of laxatives, duretics or self-induced vomiting, Keeler said.
Kohl said that bulimics show little change in outward appearance. However, she said, bulimia takes its toll internally, and damage to the esophagus and stomach lining can occur, as the bulimic experiences dangerous fluid shifts from day to day.
day.
In addition, many bulimies are close to being malnourished because they rob their bodies of necessary nutrients in their purging, she said.
Bulimia, the binge-purge syn-
"Their goal is to hold their own; they want to pour all that food down their body and not gain weight." Kohl said.
Growing numbers
Kohl, the dietician at Watkins,
said, "I'm seeing increasing numbers
coming in for counseling. People are
reaching out for help more openly on this campus and we're getting more doctors' referrals."
Last spring, Kohl said she was asked to give talks at three sororities and one residence hall. The number of students believed to have eating disorders had reached proportions where the houses didn't know how to deal with the problem, she said.
Keeler, the psychiatrist at Watkins, stressed that the exact causes of eating disorders were unknown. However, many common characteristics are associated with the disorders.
Girls who seem to be the most susceptible to eating disorders are those who were high achievers in high school and were pushed to continue that success, Kohl said.
Those with eating disorders tend to be women, she said. Ninety-five percent of anorectics are women, and for every 10 women, only one man suffers from bulimia, she said.
"They are so pressured to do for others that they feel their lives are controlled by others' expectations." she said.
Treatment
Treatment of eating disorders is highly individualized. Keeler said, depending upon the disorder and the extent to which it interferes with the person's being able to live a normal life.
Keeler also said that regardless of the disorder, victims of eating disorders needed to be assured that help for their problem existed, but that they had to be forthright in dealing with those helping them.
Kohl said, "There has to be a readiness and willingness to receive help by the patient."
She said that threats did not help patients, because they were often manipulative and attended counseling sessions just to placate family
and friends rather than to help themselves.
to uncover the underlying reasons for the disorder.
The important thing in counseling those with eating disorders, Keeler said, is to continue to reinforce that they are literally starving themselves to death. The counselor must make them realize that they are hungry and stop their self-destructive behavior.
Rebuilding the self-image is an important process in the treatment of anorectics and bulimics, Kohl said
"They have lost themselves as a friend," she said. "We help them not hate who they see in the mirror And that's one of the hardest things."
Bulimies, Kohl said, usually think that what they are doing is wrong, and want to escape from the nightmarish cycle. However, she said, "the anorectic usually doesn't.
- learning to become a friend to themselves again."
Family involvement
Family involvement is critical in the treatment of patients with eating
R R
- Linda Keeler, psychiatrist
the appointment with the mental health counselor, she said, was advisable because the patient needed
KEELER SAID THAT people who did not recognize that a problem existed could continue to lose weight, until someone intervened.
Once the patient admitted to having a problem, Kohl said, doctors try to treat the "whole person," rather than just one aspect of the problem.
"I make it a contingency from day one that I will work with them only if they make two other appointments," she said, "one with a physician, and the other with a mental health counselor."
It's not necessarily clear why the problem may be increasing, but many attribute it to the emphasis on thinness in our culture.
see herself as having a problem. How can you treat someone who is wasting away and can't see that they have a problem?"
"But, there will always be that temptation to turn to food as a way of coping." Kohl said of victims of eating disorders. "They are always going to have to be on the guard in terms of food."
YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR
disorders. Branson said
As with other addictive behaviors an eating disorder isn't cured, this arrested, she said.
"I think that until the parents are involved in the therapy process," he said, "the patients really don't have much of a chance of improving."
"I feel my role is to help the individual view food in the correct context," she said. "They are terrified to eat normally again."
After recognizing the eating disorder problem and seeking counseling, the next step for the patient is to relearn how to eat. Kohl said.
PRINTS
FRAME WOODS 25th £ low
842-4900
A fine selection of distinctive leather goods
Andiamo Luggage Anne Klein Collections Dooney-Bourke Handbags Hugo Bosca Billfolds Michael Green Handbags Schlesinger Briefcases
914 Massachusetts
842-6046
j