Tuesday, February 18, 2014 • Page 4
Opinions
Editor: Katelyn Kennon letters@wildcat.arizona.edu (520) 621-3192 twitter.com/dailywildcat
Weighing perks of weight loss BY MAURA HIGGS The Daily Wildcat
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s Arizona heats back up to those warm spring days we all know and love, I am slowly being bombarded with images of the perfect beach body. More and more people are heading to the Student Recreation Center to reach this ideal figure. I’m totally for looking better and becoming healthier while doing so, but the idea of losing weight just for its own sake is an unappealing one. Our culture of diets and weight loss seems to create the belief that as long as you’re skinny, you’re healthy. I see this delusion everywhere. As Kate Moss said, “Nothing tastes better than skinny feels.” But thinness is not necessarily a sign of health. What is, though? The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” This means everything from sexual health and family planning to the social environment you engage in on a daily basis. I also define health as feeling good. It means feeling mentally and physically comfortable at whatever weight I am. It means watching what foods I eat and my level of exercise every week, and modifying them until I feel good and energetic. Body image is a hot topic. Recently Sports Illustrated announced that its swimsuit issue will feature Barbie on the cover. This portrays a specific image of what women are supposed to look like, and women — especially teenagers and college students — find themselves trying to decide if that’s how they should look. Additionally, it’s reported that between 10 to 20 percent of college-age females, as well as 4 to 10 percent of college-age males, are affected by an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia. Eating disorders are often linked to other psychiatric disorders such as depression. Both anorexia and bulimia occur because of the idea that skinny is healthy. In fact, health depends on your body’s composition of muscle and fat, as well as how tall you are. Is it possible, if we create a more supportive environment for ourselves, we could potentially help to slowly change our mindset to one of a better and more fair image of ourselves? A few different initiatives have been taken to hopefully create that environment here on our own campus. According to its website, the mission of UA Body Smart is “to enhance self-worth, resiliency and empower body image among UA students of all genders.” The Love Your Body Program offers peer-led discussions to explore where body image issues originate. As this program is still fairly new, only time can tell if it will make a difference on our campus. It holds events on the UA Mall where students can write the reasons why they are excellent the way they are. Another, UA Hope Notes, was created to get students to encourage each other to believe that they are worthy of happiness in their own skin. The idea is that you leave sticky notes around campus with encouraging messages for other students to find. If you find one, you’re encouraged to share it using social media, especially Instagram. Steps such as these can create a positive difference in our social environments here on campus. They are working to change the dialogue and make it more open and comfortable for students to get help or learn how to help their peers. The goal is that as these programs grow and evolve, they can reach more people in the UA community. This can be done by encouraging a friend or becoming a mentor. We need to spread the message that it is more important to be healthy than it is to be skinny.
— Maura Higgs is a neuroscience and cognitive sciences sophomore. Follow her @maurahiggs.
On-campus options leave the chow conscious hungry BY brittany rudolph The Daily Wildcat
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y first year at the UA was full of minor culture shocks. I had to walk everywhere. I shared a small room with someone for the first time. Girls in matching neon tank tops with strange, imposing letters on them called me a “plebe” as they drove down greek row. And to make matters worse, there was nothing to eat. If you’re thinking that I, a hapless freshman, couldn’t manage to find the Student Union Memorial Center, you’re partly right. However, even when I did find my way there, the student union’s options seemed profoundly dissatisfying. Gone were my youthful days of fresh fruits and vegetables (french fries not included). Instead, I had access to all of the Burger King and Chick-fil-A I could possibly want. What option could possibly give students more than a future filled with fries and fudge? The answer is closer to us than expected, literally. Locally grown fruits and vegetables could provide healthy alternatives to what’s currently sold on campus. Ashley Sanders, a veterinary science junior and undergraduate director for Students for Sustainability, defines locally-grown food as food grown within a 200-mile radius. For us, that’s roughly the distance from Tucson to Phoenix. Foods with lower transport times stay fresher and retain their nutrients better, creating healthier culinary options. But currently, the name of the game in the student union is more “Super Size Me” than it is
2013 Progress Report, a burgeoning partnership “VeggieTales.” Fresh produce is hard to find on with local San Xavier Co-Op Farm aims “to source campus. Although U-Mart does sell some apples some San Xavier vegetables and beans to student and bananas, its selection of fruits and vegetables union restaurants.” This is a step forward in is limited. Snacks like gummy worms and chips furthering campus food quality, but there’s more take center stage. And if you want a salad for dinner on the weekends, good luck; both Core and that could be done. These partnerships should not end with San Cactus Grill are closed, while Panda Express and Xavier Co-Op, but extend to other farms in the Papa John’s stay open until 9 p.m. At least pizza is surrounding area. made with tomato sauce, right? Once that happens, the student unions can In order to provide healthier options for students, the student union should consider taking begin selling healthier foods and create a joint initiative with Campus Health Service to promote advantage of selling the foods, like citrus, that are grown nearby. Integrating more locally grown food healthy eating. Students who frequently go elsewhere for their produce could start to frequent into menus at the student union would not only places like U-Mart. The student union would not give students healthier options, but would also be need to worry about losing profits to farmer’s an economical and sustainable decision. markets, the exhibitors at According to Sanders, less carbon the markets would still be is emitted in transport when food What option making money through a is grown closer to its destination. It could possibly partnership with the school doesn’t hurt that fresher food tends give students and students would have to be tastier, too. more choices. These local foods can be obtained more than a Eating nutritiously at nearby farmers markets, which future filled while living on campus is offer excellent options for students with fries and difficult right now, but it who crave more than the vegetables fudge? doesn’t have to be in the in the salad bars at Cactus Grill and future. With the help of Park Student Union. more promotion, more onMany of us living on campus campus options and more may not have vehicles, but there’s a attention, locally grown food could protect our farmers market just across Speedway Boulevard. Every Friday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the UA College environment and keep us feeling fresh long past our foods’ expiration dates. of Medicine Patio at the University Medical Center boasts an impressive array of local produce. On nearby Fourth Avenue, the Food Conspiracy Coop contains healthy, organic foods. The UA should model its menus around the food sold at those — Brittany Rudolph is a sophomore nearby markets. studying English and art history. Follow her Recently, Students for Sustainability has helped @DailyWildcat. the UA make important strides in accomplishing just this. According to the program’s December
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From “ASUA to launch campaign supporting stable tuition” (by Meghan Fernandez, Feb. 13) I agree completely with [Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Morgan] Abraham about the need for containing tuition increases. As a contingent faculty member potentially affected by any freeze in streams of funding, I hope Mr. Abraham will check the legal public records easily accessible to any citizen and ask those with knowledge of exactly what this kind of freeze will mean. Where, for example, will the deficit from a tuition freeze be made up — specifically? Are those supporting Mr. Abraham willing to live without certain luxuries to make this work? I encourage everyone
at the UA to check the salaries of all their professors. Ask yourselves whether you are willing to reduce the paycheck of your favorite teacher, a teacher who likely, if you are paying out of state tuition, makes less per year than you pay for a year’s worth of classes? Demand cuts not come out of their incomes. Specify areas where cuts should be made. Where is the bloat? Because there will be cuts. Any proposals Abraham may formally make need to be fully informed. The more support he receives from UA stakeholders, the more likely this might work. —Ben Quick Go Mr. Abraham! I believe inflated tuition, as UA now has, will be the demise of universities as we know them. It is the single most important reason my support for my alma mater will remain trivial in $$$. We have “lost
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our way in higher ed’ by paving the halls with gold instead of focusing on education. By the way, I “served” on the Student Senate in the ’60s and those are the same stiff backed chairs! Where is the money going anyway? — 60s Wildcat From “Wildcats are prepared for a possibly wet valentine” (by Luke Della, Feb. 12) Unfortunately for the state of Arizona this rivalry game may be overshadowed by the actions of a rude ASU student. The spitting incident that made national news and gave a “black eye,” to the Territorial Cup Basketball game will certainly be the talk surrounding the game. Hopefully, most people will not make the unfortunate mistake of confusing classy UA fans with the ASU fans. Last week’s incident is merely one of many reasons that separate these two schools, and Peter Griffin from “Family Guy,” made
a joke about “getting into ASU with a note from your mom.” Bear Down! — Moon Luten OK, so the spitting was very unfortunate and classless. That being said the incident was preceded by a Oregon player stalking in front of the student section. He said “I was trying to walk off a injury” I have season tickets in front of the visitors bench, he could have went the other direction and not interacted with the fan base at all. Even that said, he proceeded to taunt and throw fake elbows at the student section. If that had happened at the zoo, what do you think would have happened? So that being said, don’t grade all ASU fans on one student. By the way, I was harassed at your football stadium, called names, and threatened, as well as my wife, so take the high and mighty attitude and stow it… Kisses. — Peter Nerat
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