Sitting with friends in the Usdan Cafe, Glenn Prives '06 ate a lunch consisting of a hamburger, fries, two cookies and water. "I wanted a hamburger, so I ate a hamburger," Prives said.

According to the "intuitive eating approach" taught at a recent seminar held at Brandeis, Prives may have the right idea when it comes to practicing healthy eating habits.

The emphasis on intuitive eating as a way to build and maintain physical health and a healthy body image will be discussed among Brandeis students through a series of workshops conducted by psychiatrist Rivka Simmons and co-sponsored by the Departament of Student Life, the Brandeis Health Center, Food for Thought and the Health Education Leadership Program (HELP). The first seminar was held Sunday.

Simmons, a Boston area psychotherapist and teacher, is founder of the program entitled, "Have Your Cake and Eat it Too! A Gentle Approach to Food, Your Body, and Yourself." The program aids those who deal with eating disorders and issues, offering 8 - to - 10 week classes, individual and group counseling, support groups and workshops, among other services.

According to Simmons, intuitive eating rejects dieting in favor of a more natural, less restrictive approach to eating in which one learns to recognize emotional hunger and respond to natural hunger signals and carvings. Such an approach deviates from the typical stress on diets and restrictions in the attempt to attain a certain body weight or standard often sought after by college students and others.

In fact, according to the National Eating Disorders Association, 91 percent of women surveyed on college campuses had tried dieting, 22 percent of these women
indicating that they dieted "often" or "always." Research on dieting practices has also shown that 95 percent of these women will regain any weight lost within one to five years.

In addressing this concern about dieting, Simmons held two workshops at Brandeis last year, and due to the appeal and interest in her workshops, she was invited back in order to teach the series of workshops currently underway.

Brandeis nutritionist Laura O'Gara said "we came up with this strategy of offering a series of workshops ... to teach a non-dieting approach to eating." She added she hopes "to teach people how to go back to the style of eating when they are paying attention to their bodies."
"The premise is to help people have a healthier relationship with food," Simmons said.

The problem, as expressed by Simmons at Sunday's workshop, is that factors such as rules, body shaping, and emotional eating interfere with one's ability to retain the natural relationship to food with which each person is born.

"People eat because it is time to eat or because the person they are eating with is eating (a particular item)," O'Gara said. They are "not necessarily matching their food choices based on what their body is saying it needs at that time of day, (which) gets into a situation where their eating is very chaotic."

"All these things put us out of touch with our natural body signals. That pure relationship with food gets pretty mangled over our lifetime," Simmons said.
The most recent workshop, in conjunction with the Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 workshops, is the first in a three-part mini-series of workshops under the heading of "Intuitive Eating." These workshops overlap with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which will occur during the last week of February.

Beginning with the first part of the section of workshops on intuitive eating, a group of seven Brandeis students met Sunday in an informal, open and interactive framework with Simmons as she communicated an appropriate relationship with food, why disparities from this relationship develop and how to resolve one's eating habits and adherence to rules in order to rebuild a healthier relationship with food. Attendees were advised to measure their hunger on a scale from one to ten, five being the neutral point at which one is neither hungry nor full.

The students in this discussion-oriented forum expressed a number of concerns, including how to diminish the idea of certain foods, such as chocolate cake, being "illegal." In addition, the attendees were distressed over the college environment's role in making students increasingly susceptible to developing an unhealthy relationship with food. Such factors include the high stress and emotional aspects of college life, the chaotic scheduling of meals on campus and the cafeteria-style eating.

Meanwhile, O'Gara indicated that "(students) can afford to have typical college food."

Loretta Stein '06, one student who attended the past seminar, said, "I think that the college atmosphere is very different from what you have at home. You have to recognize how (college) changes your eating patterns."

General coordinator of Food For Thought Rebecca Karp '03 sponsors the seminars and campus club that deal with issues such as body image, nutrition, stress, mental and physical health and balance. She said she too has found that college life can significantly contribute to issues with food.

"It's really widespread on so many college campuses," Karp said.

In addition, Karp noted that statistics indicate that eating disorders are more prominent among people from more affluent backgrounds and among those who deal with a significant degree of pressure, both conditions with which members of the student body can identify.

Outside of college campuses in particular, eating disorders occur at an alarming rate among adults and youth alike. According to the Harvard Eating Disorders Center, eating disorders affect more than five million people in the United States alone. In addition, three percent of adolescent and adult women and one percent of men currently experience anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or a binge-eating disorder.

Karp recognized the importance of schools such as Brandeis dealing with this subject matter.

"I think that eating disorders and anything related is such a taboo subject," Karp said. "I think having a program like this with a gentle approach to eating and taking care of yourself ... is important for men and women on campus."

Stein added that the seminar "was definitely informative and good for anybody who is interested in patterns they have always had."

Both O'Gara and Simmons stressed that there is no requirement concerning the number of workshops a participating student must attend. The workshops are designed for any interested student, regardless of any prior personal or other experience with eating disorders. Simmons has geared the seminars to any student in the general Brandeis community who wishes to gain increased understanding of a healthy relationship with food.

In this respect, Simmons said, the program is unparalled by any similar colleges or universities.

"I think it's unique to Brandeis," she said. "Other colleges might work with people with much more extreme eating disorders. This is much more broad. It's a much more open program to catch people in the beginning stages of disconnection with their bodies."

O'Gara added that it is also unusual for universities to have a nutritionist on staff. Furthermore, nutritionist on other campuses are rarely hired by the university rather than the dining service, the former being the case at Brandeis. Appointments with O'Gara, Brandeis' nutritionist can be made free of charge by calling the Health Center.

Simmons will be returning to Brandeis for the next seminar on Feb. 9. After the third seminar dealing specifically with intuitive eating on Feb. 23, there will be one seminar conducted each for the months of March, April and May dealing with the subjects of emotional hunger, negative body image and caring for one's body respectively.

All seminars take place at 7 p.m. in Room 315 of the Shapiro Campus Center.