Health concerns at Princeton: Student group addresses eating disorders
Though it is impossible to gauge how many University students suffer from eating disorders, one campus group is striving to do what it can to educate and counsel peers about the dangers of the diseases.Courtney Weiner '01, an eating concerns peer educator, helped conduct a study during her freshman year and concluded that of the 500 students surveyed, 25 percent had a type of eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia.Weiner witnessed problems with eating disorders firsthand while attending an all-female high school.Now, as an eating concerns peer educator, she said she and other members of the group are working to "change the concept of women and body at the University."Weiner said she and the other peer educators attempt to better inform students about eating disorders by speaking to residential advising groups and by providing advice and counseling for friends of students who may suffer from the diseases."We're sort of the foot soldiers of the group, educating people in the most casual settings," she said.