Although most Duke students have no idea that Durham is known as the diet capital of the world, many are very aware of the intense diet culture that exists at Duke and many college campuses.
Associate Professor of English Julie Tetel's publishing company Generation Books recently published Jean Anspaugh's new novel Fat Like Us. The book follows men and women who have struggled with weight issues for their entire lives and come to Durham to conquer their bodies.
Weight battles are not uncommon to the majority of Americans. The Centers for Disease Control recently estimated that 61 percent of all Americans over the age of 20 are either overweight or obese.
"We need to look at the American population and ask OWho is normal anymore?'" Tetel said. "There is a fat-thin dichotomy in the world right now. Hollywood is turning out numerous movies where thin actors are playing fat roles. Look at Julia Roberts, Gwenyth Paltrow and Martin Short. Duke students seem to only focus on the thin side of the spectrum."
Stacie McEntyre, an eating disorder specialist at Counseling and Psychological Services would probably agree. CAPS saw 1,100 students last year and immediately identified 100 of them with eating issues.
"My perception is that the diet culture is more intense here than in the general population and maybe more than other universities," McEntyre said.
Opinions about whether or not Duke students diet in a medically advisable way vary within the student body.
"The diet culture at Duke seems so unhealthy," sophomore Claire Logsdon. "People diet by eating almost nothing, getting fed up with it and binging and feeling guilty about eating and spending hours at the gym."
Sophomore Adam Kole disagreed. "I think that people do care about their weight but in a more responsible way than at other schools," he said. "People eat healthy and exercise rather than doing something extreme. They see it in more of a long-term light."
Whether or not severely disordered eating is widespread at the University is not quite certain, but McEntyre said students seem to be more conscious of their bodies.
"The culture here really breeds dieting. Most of the students that come here are pretty goal-oriented and have been in an environment in high school where they were the best. They come here, and there is a drive for perfectionism, differentiation from other students and identity," McEntyre said.
Students seem to agree that there is a lot of pressure at Duke.
"When someone comes to this school who doesn't feel like they stack up against the standard, there can be a lot of pressure to conform to such a visible aspect of life," sophomore Arthur Wood said.
CAPS provides many services for students who have body image concerns including an eating disorder treatment team, which provides students with counseling, physician services and a dietitian. The Healthy Devil also provides counseling, pamphlets promoting healthy dining and information about the warning signs of eating disorders.
The issues of dieting and healthy eating are not new to the University. In the 1930's at Duke's Medical Center, Dr. Walter Kempner was the first to prescribe diets as a possible method of intervention for heart disease. His patients began to lose amazing amounts of weight, prompting many would-be dieters to Durham, which now hosts a variety of fitness and diet programs.
Tetel said Durham became a location known nationwide by overweight people as a place where they could come for a last chance.
According to a pamphlet from the Healthy Devil, as many as a million men have eating disorders and 5 percent of college males have experienced binge eating. About seven million women may have disordered eating patterns.
Although some students turn to unhealthy eating as a form of dieting, not all fall into this trap. In her three years at Duke, junior Rebecca Weksberg has noticed that eating behavior varies among individuals. "I see a lot of girls eating salads or frozen yogurts for meals, while others seem perfectly fine with greasy Chik-fil-A or McDonalds," she said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.