Health
No pain, no gain JUST SAY NO step aerobics Stressed Out low in saturated fats "peer pressure" You Are What You Eat burnout It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This SAFE SEX freshman 15 Why Ask Why? thigh master feel the burn friends don't let friends drive drunk AIDS KILLS Just Do It this is your brain on drugs
Awareness Overdose
Have we crammed so many health sound bites down our throats that we just don't care anymore?
By Jenny MacNair, The Flat Hat, College of William & Mary
We can't escape. On the tube, in the paper, on every billboard, bulletin board, kiosk and commercial.
buzz words bombard us. Our colleges are spending vast resources telling us to eat right and drink less. We've been subjected to health fairs, seminars, lectures and novelties like "rubberware" safe-sex awareness parties. Even MTV, in its special The Seven Deadly Sins warns about the consequences of drug use, unprotected sex and not working out.
By now we know what's good for us. But do we care? Are the messages motivating us to clean up our acts — or do we file the buzz words in our collective subconscious like so many other sound bites, somewhere between "make a run for the border" and "Planet Reebok"?
WHOPPERS AND WORKOUTS
I'm sure I'll look back and bate myself for some things I've done, but I'm not changing anything in the near future.
- Karen Macintosh, a sophomore at Elon College in North Carolina who admits she eats fast food, smokes and never works out
The problem isn't that all students scarf and booze and veg out on the couch. According to a 1993 study by Mediark Research, Inc., 60 percent of U. Magazine's readers work out, almost half go biking and 42 percent go running. But beyond working up a sweat, little energy is spent focusing on health-related issues.
"The buzz word now is wellness," says Paul Richards, swim coach and instructor at Mary Washington College in Virginia. "It's a totally inclusive concept, and students today are much more aware than students 20 years ago. But I don't think their habits are any different."
Christy Anouilh, a sophomore at HorryGeorgetown Technical College in South Carolina, is
like a lot of people: She's concerned about health, but finds it hard to fit good fitness habits into her already busy life. "I've been saying for two years that I'm going to do sit-ups, and I haven't done them yet," she says.
Like our jogging, Big Mac-loving president, a lot of students who exercise confess to eating junk food.
"I work out regularly," Nathan Cuvelier, a sophomore at California U. of Pennsylvania, says over a Whopper and fries. "I take vitamins and have a very set workout program, but I've grown up on fries. When you're in elementary school, there's no choice everything comes with fries."
We're just starting to see what effect growing up in the drive-through lane is having on us. According to the American Heart Association, high cholesterol isn't just our parents' problem. Close to 30 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds have cholesterol levels over 200, which puts them at risk of heart disease.
BICK BESSEY. DAILY NEXUS. U. OF CALIFORNIA. SANTA BARBARA
But Clayton Rosati, a sophomore at Syracuse U., isn't impressed. He is among an increasing number of people who are fed up with being warned about everything.
"I don't care," he says. "That's a lot of crap — it's total hype. I don't think eating fast food can be that bad for you."
DYING TO BE THIN
dangerous trend.
I heard about the freshman 15 and I was worried that for me it would be the freshman 50. So I got concerned not about gaining weight, but about losing weight — like for insurance.
Amy Sharpe, a senior at Purdue U. recovering from anorexia and bulimia
For many students, it's not what they're eating that's the problem — it's how they feel about eating.
In the '80s, America seemed to discover eating disorders, which for a while became a media crusade. After-school specials, made-for-TV movies, teen magazines and even sitcoms attempted to combat the
The movement for awareness fizzled quickly, and we don't hear as much about eating disorders these days. But that doesn't mean they've gone away.
"I think eating disorders are still a real problem, although you don't hear about it as much in the popular press," says Desi Hacker, clinical psychologist at the College of William and Mary's counseling center.
Hacker says many students come to college with eating disorders that worsen once they get out on their own.
Amy Sharpe, a senior at Purdue U., knows what that's like. During high school, she was hospitalized because her anorexia and bulimia led her to take as many as 30 laxatives and diuretics a day. She recovered only to relapse after entering college, where she says the pressures to be thin got to be more important than staying healthy. And in college, she says, "getting away with it" was easier.
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U. Magazine
OCTOBER 1993