The series “We Create the Culture We Want,” named after the mantra, highlights certain aspects of culture that impact the community. This installment explores eating culture and habits. The students interviewed in this article requested anonymity and are identified by pseudonyms, given the sensitive nature of the subject.
As lunch time rolls around, some students follow the smell of pizza to beat the cafeteria line while others venture off campus. As some scribble down the final answers of the history homework they forgot to do the night prior, they accidentally skip lunch, while others skip the meal altogether out of concern for their appearance.
An anonymous survey on eating culture, conducted by The Cypress, was sent out to the entire student body via Canvas. Of the 212 respondents, 67.9 percent of respondents said they have skipped meals. The frequency, reason and impacts widely vary.
A lack of time
Ninety-three students who skip meals pointed to the length of the lunch line and 89 students pointed to a lack of time. An anonymous survey respondent said that, because of this, the cafeterias need to be reimagined.
“The lunchrooms are always [at] capacity, people get trapped for tens of minutes (minutes that could be used for commuting, work, etc.),” the respondent wrote.
Many students said they felt time is better spent not waiting in line. One anonymous respondent said she prefers to get a head start on her homework.
“The lunch line is way too long. I spend 20 minutes in the line just to get the leftovers, and then only have 10 minutes to eat before class and no time to socialize with others,” the respondent wrote. “Sometimes I also have work to do, and I don’t want to spend 20 minutes waiting for lunch when I can just do my work instead.”
Some students felt working during lunch is necessary for academic success.
“Because of how frequently sleep and food must be sacrificed in order to finish school work, it seems that it is not possible to do perfectly in school without sacrificing physical health,” one respondent wrote.
Nurse April Armstrong said she has noticed patterns of meal skipping among students for varying reasons. However, she said it can be particularly common in the mornings.
“Your body rhythm is designed to be awake later in the night, sleepier in the morning. So it is a challenge for many students to kind of get to school on time,” Armstrong said. “For a lot of people, it’s early. They’ve just woken up; they’re not hungry for breakfast. Then sometimes that’s fine and they’re fine until lunchtime and then other times I do see kids that start to feel a little unwell.”
Appearance concerns
While many students skip meals due to a lack of time, 31 percent of students surveyed skip meals due to social media pressure and concern for appearance. Additionally, 14.6 percent of students said they skip meals due to awkward feelings because few or no people at their table are eating.
A senior survey respondent said they have observed meal-skipping due to social pressures.
“I’ve noticed many of my friends skip meals because of the social aspect of getting lunch, and many fear going through that alone and being judged,” the respondent wrote.
A freshman female respondent connected eating concerns to mental health issues, including anxiety, stress and depression.
“When I am anxious, which is often, I do not feel hungry,” the respondent said.
Another freshman female survey respondent skips meals daily and wrote that she has not had breakfast on a school day for over three years. She wrote that she does so because of reasons related to appearance.
“I’m trying to look better. Maybe that way people will talk to me and want to be my friend. I used to get made fun of for the amount that I eat, so if I do eat in a public setting, it won’t be anything extreme,” the respondent wrote.
The majority of respondents said they noticed people around skipping meals, and this is accompanied by a myriad of different feelings.
One anonymous senior, who will be referred to as Emily, said she noticed such a similar sentiment in her social circles.
“The other day, me and a friend went to get sandwiches, and we were trying to rush to get to the front of the line and she was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so fat for doing this,’” Emily said.
Emily said she noticed people skipping meals because of athletics-motivated competition. An anonymous sophomore and swimmer, who will be referred to as Sam, said athletes alter their diets to drop weight.
“In sports, you need a weight class, not specifically swimming, but having a few pounds less does help with performance,” Sam said.
Disordered eating
Social worker Gabrielle Dean said she looks at the Youth Risk Behaviors Survey yearly. One general topic covered by the survey is eating habits, including questions regarding appearance concerns. Dean said there are percentages of youth who definitively do or don’t have eating disorders, and then, there’s a remaining grey area: about 25 percent of youth aren’t sure if they have an eating disorder or not.
“They know they’re not doing this stuff like in the movies, where [there are] dramatic eating disorders. But, they know that they’re trying to control their food. They know they’re counting calories in their head,” Dean said.
Armstrong said disordered eating has grown more common since the pandemic, with social media playing a large role. Boston College nursing student Maya Wohl, who works with Armstrong in the nurse’s office of the freshman building, said she agreed that social media brings negative comparisons.
“A lot of times when people are on social media, it’s when they’re bored. They have nothing else going on. They’re just kind of scrolling and scrolling,” Wohl said. “It’s not necessarily a low point in their life, but it’s when maybe something not exciting is happening, and then they’re seeing everyone post their most exciting moments, their highlights, pictures that they think they look the best in. So it’s very easy to compare.”
While Dean said eating disorders are historically more common to arise amongst women, there have been increasing percentages of men impacted.
“Women used to be very self-conscious about this and now men are also very self-conscious about making sure they eat protein so they [can] put on muscle weight,” Dean said.
Impacts on students
More than 53 percent of survey respondents indicated skipping meals impacted their “overall energy.” One survey respondent said the feeling of skipping a meal was comparable to that of not getting enough sleep, with the added discomfort of an empty stomach.
“I can feel how depleted I am during my sports practice, classes and homework in the evening. Afterwards, I always tell myself, ‘I’m never doing that again’ and I don’t for a good while,” the survey respondent said.
Sam said missing meals does not affect his athletic performance greatly, but it does affect his academics when it comes to studying or homework.
“[Skipping meals] certainly will impact energy,” Sam said. “If I didn’t eat after a while, I would start to feel more drowsy.”
Armstrong said while it is sometimes difficult to know whether students come to the nurse feeling unwell because they’ve skipped a meal, she does see students coming in with symptoms that could be due to not having eaten. She said she sees students feeling dizzy or with headaches and even some students simply looking for a snack.
Wohl said skipping a meal would certainly impact anyone, but especially high school students with busy schedules.
“If you’re playing a sport, your muscles are going to feel weaker. You’re going to feel like you can’t run as far. You might even feel dizzy or lightheaded if your blood sugar is too low,” Wohl said. “People forget that your brain is also a muscle. If you’re trying to sit down and study for a big test and you haven’t eaten all day, you’re going to have brain fog, you might get headaches [and] you’re going to [have] a hard time concentrating.”
Improving school culture
Public health social worker and school adjustment counselor Elise Cattam said misinformation regarding eating and nutrition spreads, forming the general culture she sees.
“The biggest thing about changing [the culture] is we need to be really cognizant of the way that we think towards ourselves, towards our bodies, trying to make sure that we’re getting information from reliable sources, especially when we’re thinking about things like nutrition, where there is a lot of research and data that is reliable,” Cattam said.
One female sophomore respondent, who said she struggled with her eating habits, recommended cooking as a method to cope.
“Knowing what’s in my food and how much of it really helped tone down the stress,” the respondent wrote. “I’m a pretty decent cook at this point, and it’s something I do for fun! It’s not a coping method anymore. It’s really nice.”
Dean said she notices comparison and competition surrounding eating manifesting in daily dialogue.
“There’s a lot of conversations between girls about worrying about what they’re eating. And they give each other tips about, ‘Have you tried this and tried that?’ I worry that it is a contagious thing that if somebody is not eating, it can make everybody else who’s eating normal food get self-conscious,” Dean said.
In addition to this mindset shift, Cattam said part of combating a negative culture surrounding food is adopting an increased consciousness in casual conversation.
“It only takes a few of us to get a misconception and then it starts to snowball from there. So one person says to another, like at lunch, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you’re eating that.’ And then that person holds that belief and it starts to spread that way,” Cattam said. “Then all of a sudden we’re all thinking that everyone is doing the same thing and that’s often not the case at the end of the day.”
If you think you or somebody you know may be struggling with an eating disorder, you can call the NEED hotline at 1-866-662-1235 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and it will put you in touch with a licensed mental health professional. More hotlines, treatment programs and other resources can be found at the online community Eating Disorder Hope.
