exeposé
The UK’s Best Student Publication
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ISSUE 753 24 JAN 2024 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Concerns over wellness app and complexities of student nutrition
Image: Clemence Smith
Holocaust Memorial Day: my family story Page 12
Livvy Mason-Myhill and Annabel Jeffery Editor-in-Chief and Writer
Murder on The Dancefloor Page 21
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OLLOWING a post by Guild President Emma de Saram this month, students and influencers are starting to have conversations about the support for eating disorders and diabetes. In her post entitled ‘We have to talk about Zoe’, de Saram shares her thoughts on the nutritional app and study Zoe, including its use of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) for non-diabetics. The study pioneered by Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, was desig-
ned in 2020, and promotes itself as ‘the world’s largest in-depth nutrition study’ with its research turned into ‘a personalised program’ which gives users insights into how their body reacts to different foods. As a part of this study, participants send off a gut health and blood fat sample, as well as wearing a CGM for two weeks which they can use to track their own blood sugar levels through the Zoe app. This is initially completed from users consuming ‘test’ muffins. Emma de Saram, Guild President, gave comments to Exeposé indicating her attitudes towards wellness apps like Zoe and explaining what support there is available at the University and the Guild.
De Saram explained how she would get advertisements on her social media for glucose monitors before she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She further suggested her concerns with these advertisements by stating that “the fact that glucose monitoring devices, which are pretty much life-changing for diabetics, are being promoted as part of a health and wellness solution is really worrying.” De Saram emphasised that advocating for frequent blood glucose monitoring could pose risks. This is because it might encourage individuals with normally functioning pancreases to excessively monitor their blood sugar in relation to their dietary intake. While this oversim-
plifies the complexities of type one diabetes, as a diabetic herself, she said she manages her sugar levels manually by administering insulin injections. The primary goal is to prevent both excessively low and high levels to avoid severe consequences like seizures or unconsciousness and long-term health complications from elevated blood sugar. De Saram also claimed that “I fear that the normalisation of blood sugar control will lead to people hyper-fixating over keeping the graph line flat, leading to drastic and unnecessary changes to their diet — it’s another example of how technology and access to health data can take over.”
dent union. These consequences need not necessarily be financial, but the complainant must claim that they have come about as a result of an institution breaching its duty to secure free speech. The scheme will first require individuals to raise concerns with a university or student union’s own complaints scheme. Once that process is concluded, or after 30 days, they can then complain to the OfS. Complaints must be submitted within 12 months of the “adverse consequences” to which the complaint refers. The OfS would not be able to review anonymous complaints, instead requiring personal information to help them to review the complaint. However, individuals will be allowed to ask a representative
to submit a complaint on their behalf. Once the OfS has determined whether it can review a complaint, they may request further information from the complainant and the university or student union, as well as from suitable experts. They will reach a decision based on whether it appears more likely than not that the complainant has suffered adverse consequences as a result of a university or student union breaching its free speech duties. They may find a complaint wholly or partly justified, and may make recommendations to a university or student union as a result, such as recommending that they pay financial compensation. These regulations will likely have
implications for Exeter’s societies, as well as the University and Students’ Guild. A number of controversial speakers and events have been held on campus in recent years, igniting debates around how to balance free speech and safeguarding obligations. These have included Freedom Society’s talk by Carl Benjamin and Connor Tomlinson in September 2023, as well as a talk entitled “Daddy Issues: The Crisis of Fatherlessness” in 2022. There were also a petition against a talk by Dan Peña and protests against the Exeter Students for Life society during the 2021/22 academic year.
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Effects of new university free speech rules revealed
Harry Craig Deputy Editor
Town vs gown: EURFC vs Exeter Chiefs Page 30
Images (top to bottom): Harry Craig, Bryan Ledgard, Flickr, Anabel Costa-Ferreira
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XETER will be among the UK universities impacted by new free speech regulations set out by the Office for Students (OfS), in a new report published last month. The primary proposal is the establishment of a free speech complaints scheme, to which students, staff and visiting speakers can complain if they feel their freedom of speech has been restricted on a university campus. Individuals can raise complaints if they feel that they have suffered “adverse consequences” as a result of the actions of a university or stu-
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