Purdue celebrates 'every body'
for eating disorder awareness
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – "If I talked to my friends the way I talk to my body, I'd have no friends left."
That quote is just one testimonial about eating disorders that will be displayed Feb. 26-March 2 on the Purdue University campus during Celebrating EveryBODY Week.
The Student Wellness Office, Students for Healthy Body Acceptance and Positive Esteem and the Student Health Center are sponsoring the event as part of the National Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention campaign.
"We have planned a week of activities to help create change in the social environment that causes thousands of individuals to practice unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors in order to be thin," said Sue Abney, SWO nutrition education coordinator.
Throughout the week "Trees of Feelings" will be on display in 43 locations across campus. The 3-foot tall artificial evergreen trees will be decorated with purple ribbons and index cards featuring true stories written by Purdue students about how negative body image or eating disorders have affected them and people they know.
The week's first activity is "Mirror, Mirror, in My Mind," a keynote speech by Denise Driscoll, diversity resource specialist and assistant professor of psychology at Purdue. Driscoll will speak on Monday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in Fowler Hall, Stewart Center.
The presentation "Weight Loss Diets: What Works and What Doesn't" will be on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Recreational Sports Center, Room 122A. SHAPE student volunteers Becky Ruppert, a senior in dietetics from Valparaiso, Ind., and Abby Hamm, a senior in dietetics from Fort Wayne, Ind., will lead the program
On Thursday, March 1, from 3-7 p.m. in RSC, will be the "Scale of Fortune." The scale will be altered with colors (instead of numbers) to help start a dialogue about the need to stop judging people by pounds, inches, ages and numbers.
Friday is "Fearless Friday," a day to refrain from obsessing about fat, calories, exercise and body image.
Body image videos will be shown all week on Boiler Television at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. "Eating Disorders," "The Problem with Food" and "A Health Quiz" are titles of some of the videos that will be broadcast.
According to the non-profit organization, Eating Disorder Awareness and Prevention Inc., 5 percent to 10 percent of young girls and women, and 1 percent of boys and men, are struggling with eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. According to EDAP 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their shape and size.
"Our society often equates thinness with perfection and achievement," said Abney, "so it is not surprising that so many people are willing to risk their health to attain the 'perfect' body.
"We also have a fat-phobic mentality in our country that has developed into an ugly prejudice. It has become socially acceptable to openly ridicule anyone who does not fit an imaginary shape. No group or class of people should be ostracized because of their size and shape."
Abney said SHAPE is a network of Purdue students who formed to combat the idea among their peers on campus that thinness equates to perfection.
CONTACT: Sue Abney, nutrition education coordinator, Student Wellness Office, (765) 494-1716.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Quotes from Purdue students that will be on the "Trees of Feelings" are available for your use. Contact Bob Johnson, (765) 496-7704.
To the Purdue News and Photos Page
|
Purdue News
