University Health Services clinical dietitian Toby Morris discusses body image and disordered eating in a California Magazine article.
The Skinny on Body Peace and Other Campus Resources for Eating Disorders
California Magazine | July 18, 2017 | by Krissy Eliot
This spring, a handful of college kids were in a basement classroom of Barrows Hall gathered round an overhead projector. On the screen, there was a meme: a photo of a half-naked model with super-imposed text that read, “Real women have curves.” One of the students scoffed and said, “She doesn’t.” Everyone laughed. At about 5’7” and weighing in at roughly 110 pounds, she really didn’t. And noticing things like that was the point of why everyone showed up—to talk about body image.
The meeting was held by Body Peace, a UC Berkeley student-run support group for eating disorders and body image issues that was founded in 2012 by Cal grads Kim Russo and Kristen Lee. While attending Berkeley, the women noticed there weren’t feminist or women’s empowerment groups on campus at the undergraduate level regarding body-image or self-esteem, and felt that needed to be corrected. Lee handled marketing, recruiting, and networking while Russo got a constitution drafted and earned support from the university health center.
“Berkeley has all of the signs of a place where it would be really easy for women to be sucked into eating disorders because it’s very competitive,” says Russo, who suffered from anorexia in her teens. “There’s a lot of self-criticism—a perfect setting for an eating disorder to blossom.”
Just this spring, a Berkeley-specific, National College Health Assessment survey revealed that roughly 5.8 percent of undergrad and graduate students experience problems related to eating disorders, with 2 percent revealing that the disorders have affected their academic performance—be that receiving lower grades on exams or dropping courses completely. And in recent years, there’s been an uptick in students seeking help at the university.
“We have definitely seen an increase in the number of [eating disorder] patients,” says Toby Morris, clinical dietician at Berkeley’s University Health Services. She says it’s hard to know why that is, though. “I doubt that there’s more students overall with eating disorders. I’m hoping that it’s just that the word is out that we have this service.”
Read the entire article on the California Magazine website >