The College will soon hire a second part-time nutritionist concentrating on counseling and programming. As Claudette Peck, the current nutritionist, has worked more with athletic teams in recent years, the new nutritionist will replace Peck in health services and programming.
Peck provides students with food-related guidance, including nutrition counseling to improve eating habits. Students can also talk to the College’s dietitian, Elizabeth Rosenberger, about how to accommodate personal needs like allergies and athletic goals using Dartmouth Dining Services, Peck said.
A major part of nutrition counseling focuses on helping students with eating disorders, who must first see a primary care provider for initial questioning. From there, a referral may be made to a nutritionist or therapist.
According to a study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, 91 percent of women on college campuses try to control their weight though dieting. The study found that 35 percent of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting, and 20 to 25 percent of these students have full-syndrome eating disorders.
“Eating disorders are usually caused by a stressor in one’s life,” said Lizzy Southwell ’15, who suffered from anorexia in high school. “They lead to extreme depression and are very debilitating.”
Southwell said adjusting to Dartmouth was difficult due to existing triggers.
“Eating disorders are like alcoholism — they are not cured, but rather you can keep it under control,” Southwell said. “Like alcoholism, many things can trigger you back to that mindset very easily.”
Southwell sought counseling from Peck to manage her eating.
As part of treatment, Peck asks students to keep a food diary for a week. For people with an eating disorder, this is difficult and often a trigger, which makes the method controversial, Southwell said.
“She recognized that this was hard for me and is a controversial method,” Southwell said. “But in the end, it actually worked very well and helped me a lot, so I see why she does it.”
Dartmouth holds several programs to promote healthy eating, such as “Love Your Body” day and a National Eating Disorder Association awareness week, which help educate students about the resources available at the College.
Eating Disorder Peer Advisors is the College’s main program connecting students with eating disorder-related resources. Students are often more comfortable speaking with a peer than with a faculty member or counselor, EDPA Harriett Gabbidon ’14 said.
EDPAs speak with approximately five to seven students each year. To increase awareness of Dartmouth’s resources, EDPA plans to introduce office hours for the coming year, Gabbidon said.
Sororities’ optional mental health panels may also help students. Southwell spoke along with six other members of Kappa Delta sorority about struggling with eating disorders at KD’s panel.
“For some of the people that spoke, it was their first time speaking about these problems they face, which is always very hard and usually the hardest step,” Southwell said.
Dartmouth’s eating disorder advising services generally match those of other Ivy League universities, most of which have only one nutritionist.