How Colleges Are Fighting Obesity

Audra Lowe: Time for our hot topic and we’ve got registered dietician Felicia Stoler back here with us. Thanks for joining us. Felicia Stoler: Thanks for having me. Audra Lowe: This is a good one Felicia. I think that you might already know about this based on your background though. You know when you’re on college, I take a lot of classes, a lot of classes you didn’t want to take, right? Felicia Stoler: Right, absolutely. Audra Lowe: Well, there is a university in Pennsylvania, the Lincoln University is actually institute a requirement that the first year students who come on the campus and they have a body mass index or BMI of thirty or higher have to either lower that BMI or they have to take a class. Felicia Stoler: Yeah. Audra Lowe: That teaches them about fitness, health so forth and so on. The university says, it’s to keep the students healthy that we’ve been interested in making sure that our students arrive and leave healthy but a lot of people are upset about this. A lot of students saying I came to get a degree not for you to check my weight and to follow my weight. Felicia Stoler: Right. Audra Lowe: A lot of people are saying, if you’re going to do that, why don’t you have classes for people who have other issues like anorexia, bulimia and so forth and so on. Why are you singling us out? What do you think about this situation? Felicia Stoler: I think it’s a great idea but I actually think all students should have to take these classes and the class they’re talking about is taking PE class. Taking exercise classes, I think you know the kid show up to college and I think it’s all about eating whatever they want whenever they can. I don’t have to do anything, I don’t have to get off my sofa in my room and I don’t have to do anything and I think that they should have to. Audra Lowe: Do you think that it singles students out because obviously everybody in the class will probably be the students that have the BMI over 30— Felicia Stoler: Yeah I mean I think that maybe that is segregating students unfairly but they are the ones that are at risk and like for example you mentioned people with eating disorders, there are resources on most campuses for students with eating disorders to get assistance and that’s a little bit more personal but you know, I think it’s not just what you look like on the inside, it’s what you look like on the outside rather. So you know heart disease is still the number one killer in this country. So we all can benefit from regular, daily physical activities. I think all students should do it. I had to take four PE classes in college. Audra Lowe: We’ll see. I’m going to play devils advocate here because you mentioned that their resources on campus for students dealing with anorexia or bulimia. But what do you think about if this could be a mental issue or there could be some other issues that go along with the student becoming obese. Could that affect a student if they’re sitting in the class and it’s not all about the exercise, it’s not all about the fitness. There are some underlying issues that that class might not address. Felicia Stoler: Well hopefully the instructor has enough aware with all to direct them to the resources they could get assistance on campus. There are dieticians that are on campus so they could get that sort of skilled intervention that they need. And care if they do need psychological assistance because there’s something else going on and I’m sure that they could get that as well but I think that’s a really interesting hot topic. Audra Lowe: It is interesting and a lot of people not letting this one go and they are saying why are you making other students that are obese pay for more—another extra class to graduate that it should be about the degree itself. I mean there’s a lot of different comments out there on the web about this. Felicia Stoler: College is about not just learning a specific thing related to your education or training but its life skills. So part of your life skills is how do you live a healthy life, a lot of kids don’t get this in high school and you know in earlier grades so when are you expecting people to get it. Audra Lowe: Better to get it there than nowhere else to. Okay, very quickly before we go, two seats on a plane, if you are overweight, there is another issue again. The flight attendant took a photo of a man who is jammed into his seat. He is sitting in the aisle seat. This is going to the aisle itself, there is a man sitting next to him and looking up and a lot of people are upset saying did this guy know you took the picture of him. Should he have to buy two seats? Is that you know imposing on the other passenger that is sitting next to you, how do you feel about that? Felicia Stoler: Well, I know it’s probably not politically correct but I do think that they should have to write two seats. I have sat next to people like that on the airplane and it’s very uncomfortable so you know it maybe singling them out but let’s face it, you’re taking up the space. Audra Lowe: Yeah it could be a hazard too I mean there’s a lot of other things that go along with it than just what we had a chance to talk about but I love to get your comments. Send me a message on Twitter, BTV host Audra would love to know what you guys think and I’ll also forward them over to Felicia too so she’ll get them. Alright, thank you so much. Felicia Stoler: Thank you.