Perspectives

Malignant neglect

How Berkeley is putting self-image over health

By Alexander Marlow
From the April 2006 Print Edition

I am not always sure of the UC Berkeley administration’s motives, but I am starting to get the impression it wants a chunky student body. Have you noticed the full three trays of King Pin donuts at Crossroads Dining Commons, or the meager availability of only iceberg lettuce at the salad bar? Why do the thick and creamy soups taste good, while the broth-based soups taste like salt water? The prison-quality food at the “Dog Food Commons” has always bothered me, but recently I discovered more substantial evidence that indicates the administration, knowingly or unknowingly, is perpetuating an inflated corpus on grounds.

The first piece of evidence I posit is a flyer posted by the Student Health Workers in Christian Hall. SHWs are only hired after a supposedly rigorous screening and training process, and are charged with disseminating health-related information in the dorms. In Health Tip No. 13, issued January 22, entitled “Eating & Staying Healthy,” the SHW demonstrated her backward understanding of information required to stay healthy. She spent most of the flyer discussing eating disorders and defining the words “overweight” and “obese.” You would expect she would mention something about eating (the title and supposed topic of the health tip). Instead, she focused on celebrating “size diversity,” being happy with one’s body size. How could a flyer about “Eating & Staying Healthy” neglect to discuss healthy eating habits?

This health worker evidently thought the Health At Every Size method was a substitute. She wrote that the approach “links self-esteem and body image to [motivate] people to be more accepting of their bodies.” The HAES method targets the alleged five aspects of staying healthy. The number one health concern is … eating right? No. How about consistent exercise? Try again. The top priority in staying healthy is “body acceptance, self-acceptance.” Aspects two, three, and four are legitimate — “eating behavior,” “nutrition,” and “activity,” — but don’t overlook the all-important aspect number five, “social support.” Basically, if you have any friends who are carrying a little extra, give them a hug, invite them to a picnic, or buy them a kitten. The message is clear: be kind first, healthy second.

Another equally disturbing issue arose in a Nutritional Science 10 lecture. The professor presented a chart from the Journal of the American Medical Association suggesting only “medically obese” people risk death, not “overweight” people. She claimed it is not unhealthy to be overweight and never explicitly acknowledged the danger of obesity. Admittedly, putting on the “freshman 15” won’t have much effect on your life expectancy, yet according to the Centers for Disease Control a staggering 33 percent of American adults are clinically obese. As a result, JAMA reports that obesity accounts for approximately 300,000 deaths per year in the United States.

The Nutritional Science professor then observed that obesity is a top killer of Americans between the ages of 25-59, but is a less prevalent killer of older Americans. Why less prevalent? To quote my family nutritionist, “How often to you see obese older people? Not often, right? That’s because they are dead.”

Of course, I don’t think that UC Berkeley consciously wants us to be overweight, but their emphasis on self-esteem above all else is contributing to an overweight society. Bottom line: drum circles and bonfires with friends won’t make a difference in your health if you are making two trips to Mickey D’s every day. The UC Berkeley administration should highlight cures for the problem of obesity, not a feel-good mentality that will only perpetuate it.

I lost 20 pounds last semester using the basic principles of eating moderately, eating healthfully, and exercising often. While there are some cases where there are truly inescapable obstacles to success, these principles will work for most everyone if stuck to. I challenge the school to put out flyers detailing ways to stay healthy the honest way: encouraging people with poor diets and exercise regimens to change their lifestyles.

As much as Berkeley denies it, people can’t always be right, happy, and healthy at the same time. I have no preconceptions about overweight or obese people, but the focus of fliers on eating and nutrition should be to give students tools to improve themselves, not to tell them that “they are special just the way they are!” Health is not about blind self-acceptance and gumdrop smiles; it’s about self-control.

This absurdist occurrence of politically correct pandering is amusing in and of itself, I suppose, but more importantly it points towards the core of our Berkeley culture. We are supposed to be a model of intellectual and analytical gigantism, but when it comes to the everyday principles of good living and common sense actions, this school can’t seem to take two steps toward progress without tripping over our self-imposed “compassion.” We always try to be nice, and in doing so we seem to neglect the basic rules of life — you have to take care of yourself.

We can shout our self-acceptance from the rooftops, but our clogged arteries probably won’t heed the call. Let’s move towards abandoning this reliance on self-esteem for its own sake and move towards those goals that truly enforce an earned confidence and warranted self-image: hard work, discipline, and common sense.

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