Duke holds Celebrating Our Bodies Week to spread awareness about disordered eating

During the last full week in February universities around the country typically celebrate Eating Disorders Awareness Week in February, but Duke now celebrates the week under a different name to impact more students.

Duke’s student health nutrition services department will hold Celebrating Our Bodies Week on campus this week to spread awareness about resources for students struggling with body image issues, said senior Dani Steinberg, the lead organizer of the week this year. An intern in the nutrition services department, Steinberg said the name changed in recent years to make it easier for students to openly discuss their eating habits and body image concerns.

The thinking behind the shift was that students would be more likely to discuss disordered eating—which is common on campus and can be as simple as unhealthy eating habits—than eating disorders, which are more stigmatized because they are psychiatric illnesses, Steinberg said.

“I didn’t like the idea of making it [about] eating disorders and focusing so much on that, because it’s such a scary word for a lot of people,” Steinberg said. “It would detract from the people who could benefit the most from a week like this.”

Research from The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders has shown that approximately 25 percent of college students try to control their weight using methods indicative of bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder defined by binge eating and purging oneself of food that has been consumed.

Franca Alphin, director of the nutrition services department, wrote in an email that student feedback also led organizers to give the week a broader focus.

“Many students felt that the week had a somewhat negative tone to it, and what about those that might be struggling with body image acceptance and individuals of different sizes?” Alphin wrote.

To increase appeal for a majority of the student body, Steinberg said she decided to start the week Monday with a variety of student performances, including a monologue about body image and performances by a cappella groups.

The subject of TLC’s show “My Big Fat Fabulous Life,” Whitney Way Thore, will visit campus Tuesday and teach a hip-hop dance class.

Thore was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a condition in which a woman has an imbalance of female sex hormones and gains an extreme amount of weight as a result, Steinberg said. Now 380 pounds, Thore became famous for her “Fat Girl Dancing” videos on YouTube before becoming a TV personality. The show focuses on how Thore maintains a positive outlook despite the challenges that come with PCOS.

Steinberg said she hopes Thore’s class and talk about her No Body Shame Campaign will encourage students to reconsider the lens through which they view fatness, in addition to inspiring them to be more vocal about their own dietary challenges.

“Why is fat bad?” Steinberg asked. “Why isn’t fat just fat? Why is there such a negative connotation with that word?”

The week will conclude with a Wednesday panel featuring a Raleigh resident who has dealt with anorexia her whole life, nutritionists and Duke Counseling and Psychological Services personnel, as well as a Thursday event designed to put more encouraging flyers up in Wilson Recreation Center on Duke’s West Campus, Steinberg said.

Although Steinberg said she became interested in working with the nutrition services department because of the scientific aspects of nutrition and her work on a nutrition service project in Kenya, she said another motivating factor has emerged—how widespread body image issues are on Duke’s campus and nationally.

Alphin wrote that recent Duke trends regarding food consumption are both positive and negative. Some students more readily express concerns about food and body image, but others exhaust themselves by trying to maintain healthy habits.

“These are individuals who are limiting their food intake based on what they feel is ‘healthy’ to a degree that it is compromising their health and well-being and increasing their obsessive thoughts about food,” Alphin wrote.

Steinberg’s direct boss, Toni Apadula, a dietitian clinician in the department, wrote in an email that putting a student in charge of coordinating the events has proven effective.

“[Steinberg] has been able to pull together student groups to support our efforts in ways that we as advisors could not,” Apadula wrote. “It has never run as smoothly as it has this year.”