Nutrition and Eating Disorders on College Campuses
By Jane Jakubczak, RD, LDN, Nutritionist and Julie Parsons, LCSW-C, Social Worker
University Health Center
College can be a Petri dish for the development of problems in a student’s relationship with food and their body. The most common times for the onset of eating disorders are puberty and the beginning of college. There can be many reasons for this. This article will address the difficulties students face and how these challenges can lead to pathological dieting and/or feeling out of control with food choices.
Studies show that 10-20 percent of college students will develop an eating disorder, with many more developing significant disturbances with body image and preoccupations with weight and diet. What are the reasons?
The College Environment
The college environment may exacerbate the psychological, biological and socio-cultural causes for the development of an eating disorder. Students faced with new independence as well as separation from home and family can struggle with finding their balance. This transition can be stressful. The feelings created by the stress can then be projected on one’s body, thus creating a stressful relationship with food and body image.
A student’s self concept may be altered during the college years as they compete with and compare themselves to a different group of peers. Students may identify themselves differently than they did during high school. For example, a star basketball player from high school may be competing with future NBA players at college. He or she may no longer have “star” status or now has to deal with the pressures of being a star. As another example, a student who was at the top of his or her high school class is now competing with students who were also high academic achievers at their respective high schools, making the competition to be the best much more challenging. These kinds of experiences can create difficulty in defining one’s identity. This identity confusion can then be projected on one’s body, creating a situation ripe for problems with food and body image.
Interpersonal factors can also be a point of contention for students. Students are challenged to find a place to belong socially on a large campus of 35,000 students. In finding one’s niche, a student can experience rejection and come to the conclusion that he or she is, somehow, not as good as his or her peers. Students can feel isolated and long to be like others. This can also be mirrored in one’s relationship with food, feeling like one’s body signals about hunger and satiety are not good enough and that one’s body is not good enough. This often creates body dissatisfaction and fear of eating when hungry and stopping when full.
College is a culture in which perfection is glorified, and this can create internal pressures and dissatisfaction with oneself since perfection is not attainable. However, students may try to achieve it anyway. College is also a culture of judgment. Students are evaluated on a daily basis by their professors, coaches and/or their peers. The desire for perfection coupled with daily judgment can lead students to feel inadequate. This sense of inadequacy can be acted out with food choices and feelings about body image. Sometimes students feel that starting a diet or getting thinner will somehow help them to feel better and be more in control. This is a seductive promise and leads to increased anxiety, depression, shame and guilt.
Socio-Cultural Factors
Students are strongly influenced by the messages sent in our culture, especially messages about body image. These messages convince students that the body shapes and sizes on the magazine covers are the only acceptable ones. And, since a vast majority of students do not represent the narrow definition of beauty, the desire to be “perfect” can lead to feelings of inadequacy about their body shape and size. Body dissatisfaction often leads to dieting, which in turn leads to pathological dieting and eating disorders.
With all of these developmental, psychological and socio-cultural challenges as well as the nutritional challenges, it is easy for students to become preoccupied with food and their body.
Nutritional Factors
Social Norms
Peer pressure is everywhere in college including the dining hall. Students who never may have thought about a diet may find themselves struggling with a norm of dieting, which is pervasive in the campus dining halls. A student may try to copy the various diets of his or her friends in an effort to belong. Diets, however, can be dangerous. Studies show that 35% of dieters will end up having an eating disorder and many more will have a distorted relationship with food. In some cases, eating can become competitive. Some students may compete to be the thinnest and eat the least. Others may want to be the biggest and bulkiest and eat the most.
The Restrict/Binge Cycle
A common pattern is the restriction of foods during the day to be “good” on the diet, followed by becoming overly hungry and bingeing at night. A student on this cycle typically feels guilty for over-eating and starts the next day by restricting foods all over again to compensate. This behavior perpetuates the cycle, and the restrict/binge pattern can actually cause weight gain since restricting calories tends to slow down metabolism and encourages the body to store energy (fat). Storing fat is a biological survival mechanism that allows the body to function through the next bout of restriction. Any weight gain in this cycle may cause feelings of depression, which could further fuel restriction the next day. The more one restricts, the more one tends to binge and the cycle gets out of control.
The Mystery of the Dining Hall
The mystery of the nutritional contents of dining hall food may trigger fear about what is safe to eat. Many students worry about eating foods they are unsure about or that are unfamiliar. Any uncertainty about food choices may feed into a students desire to restrict, which in turn can lead to a dreaded binge.
Student Eating Patterns
Prior to entering college, many students are used to having regular meal times: breakfast before the school day, lunch during school and dinner at night. This structure does not always apply to a college student’s schedule or lifestyle. Often, students do not think to schedule meals into their day. Since the “regular” meal routine is no longer naturally integrated into their life, eating routines may suffer. Poor sleep patterns can also impact eating.
What Parents Can Do to Help
Be prepared for your child to develop an adult body. This can look different from the adolescent body you are used to seeing. The “freshman 15” may be an acceptable and healthy weight gain with the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Be mindful about comments made regarding weight, and provide support for the growth and development you see them making in becoming the person they are becoming.
Talk to your son or daughter about the changes her or she is experiencing. Encourage your student to make use of available resources at the University.
Encourage your student to visit the Health Center nutritionist, who can help your student learn the dangers of dieting and provide support for a healthy weight management plan. The nutritionist can also shed light on what the dining hall has to offer and help students make more varied choices.
Your student may also find it helpful to meet with a professional counselor/therapist in the University Counseling Center or the Health Center Mental Health Service. Licensed professionals in these offices can help your student explore the psychological and socio-cultural issues that may be impacting their relationship with food and their body. Individual therapy, group therapy and medication evaluations are available.
Educate yourself. The following resources provide helpful information about healthy eating and eating disorders:
The College Student’s Guide to Eating Well on Campus by Ann Selkowitz Litt. Tulip Hill Press, June 2000.
Surviving an Eating Disorder: Strategies for Family and Friends by Michele Siegel, Judith Brisman & Margot Weinshel. HarperCollins, 1997.
National Eating Disorders web site: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
