...is to take away the incentives of approval and attention.

I was anorexic in college. There wasn't much disincentive to stop - girls envied me, guys liked how thin I was. I got a lot of positive attention. Even the negative attention was better than no attention at all.

The best disincentive is to have high profile students - the guys everyone wants to date, the girls everyone wants to be - dis anorexia as the tool of a needy. obsessive, out-of-control, emotionally immature person. Then tout the 'right' way to be thin - the elimination of 'bad' calories (sugar, highly processed white flour, saturated fat), eating healthily, exercising regularly.

Girls do it because it *works* - they get thin, they get approval, they get drama, they get attention. You have to take these incentives away.

Maybe an online format would be specifically beneficial to someone struggling with disordered eating habits. As a program they do alone in their dorm rooms, as opposed to in a group or with a human counselor, they may be more likely to take the information in without feeling like they were being tested by the person administering it.

I see the hesitation towards trusting an online program, and I would certainly be more skeptical if there was some sort of "graduation" after completing the program that resulted in a person with an advanced eating disorder having their monitoring reduced. But a program that is aimed at everyone, including those on the verge of a serious problem? What's wrong with that? It's low cost and may help. It's also aimed at a group that isn't currently getting much attention -- women and men who are at the beginning of a struggle aren't going to go into counseling, and thus aren't being reached. It's a stretch to think that college administrators will treat an online course as the sole alternative to other, more interactive, help. Keep in mind their goal is to keep their students out of the hospital and out of the newspapers, to put it bluntly, so I don't think they're likely to rely on a cd-rom alone.

This seems like one more way to support healthy dynamics in an environment when unhealthy habits are often formed.

My sister is 5'9" and has weighed about 90 pounds (on a good week) for two years now. She has been hospitalized twice, been in treatment and had therapy. She was booted out of treatment for not gaining weight fast enough, her therapist was focused on treating the "emotional portion" and hospitals are really just designed to patch you up and send you on your way. I don't know what more we can do for her. I buy her food, take her to doctor appointments, try to talk to her, but nothing seems to make much difference. I'm watching her starve to death. Any hope, even that others won't suffer, is huge. This isn't funny, it's not something trendy that celebrities do, it is serious, deadly and ugly. If you think you're at risk get help now.

BTW- I'm guessing you mean body mass under 25, not over.

but obesity by far outstrips bulemia and anorexia as the pressing health problem of late, even for the undergrad contingent (they seem to be a particularly healthy cohort, at least compared to the general population, but their rates of obesity are still quite high). Obesity is also notoriously hard to cure, and leads to a variety of dangerous and life-threatening outcomes. In our zeal to prevent eating disorders, let's remember where the real public health threat lies.

To be fair, I also believe that if an effective and comprehensive nutrition/exercise campaign can be produced and disseminated widely, we may see concurrent decreases in eating disorders along with decreases in obesity. (Why? I hope that a focus on overall health, rather than weight per se, might prevent some of the early negative associations that later allow eating disorders to develop. Take this with a grain of salt, however; I am no expert). Alas, this will only occur if schools start serving healthier food and reintroducing physical education, parents work on improving their own bad habits, rates of poverty are reduced, etc. Such an assignment is quite difficult, of course. Considering the intensity that would be required, I do not think that internet-based interventions will do much good.

Aren't eating disorders the "essence of the university experience", indicative of college students "cheerfully" indulging in experimentation and excess; having a good time; taking a stand against the "strangling self-denial" of nutrition?

Page Rockwell herself has called unhealthy eating habits "overhyped".

Oh, but those eating disorders aren't as glamourous to the upper-middle-class white set that Broadsheet caters to as anorexia and bulimia nervosa, which Rockwell doesn't think of as "refreshing" or something to be "proudly celebrated".

It's a shame that some people's righteous and justified anger at the systems that create undereating disorders leads them to reject all systems, all standards, out of nothing more than spite.

Who cares what these young ladies are eating...The important question is, "Are they having sex?" Get your priorities straight people! It doesn't matter how often they are opening their mouths for chocolate cake (or not opening their mouth). The only thing worth monitoring or funding is how often they are opening their legs. Fat, thin, dangerously out of balance are all unimportant compared to the plethora of dangers associated with pre-marital sex.

Moreover once the young men have to marry these young ladies in order to copulate - everything will work - their self image will stabilize once they are off the dating market, their weights will be perfect (or at least irrelevant) after 5 or 6 little ones and their husbands will take care of them making all their nutritional and monetary decisions for them - in between telling them how to vote and interpreting the bible for them.

And if you doubt all this absolutely true- then how do you explain the $50 million congress appropriated for abstinence only education for 20-30 year olds (not to mention the money for the pre-20 set) versus the pittance going to fund the eating disorder research/prevention?

If you question the wisdom of the august body known as our congress – then obviously you either need a “good” man (like the President) to do your thinking for you or you a dangerous, terrorist-loving, fuzzy-headed, scary-hairy feminist, family hating, homo-sexual hugging, tofu-munching LIBERAL in need of some serious re-education (preferably on a waterboard in Syria).

--The Preacher