Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2016 / February / 01 / UBC community helps individuals with eating disorders
Campus News

UBC community helps individuals with eating disorders

February 1, 2016

The UBC Okanagan community is coming together to raise awareness of eating disorders and encourage healthy living. Their initiatives, including facilitating a personalized postcard campaign are aimed to de-mystify issues around dieting, food, compulsive exercise, body image and self-esteem.

Visit the booths hosted by the School and Heath and Exercise Sciences and the PUMPS (Prevention, Understanding, Motivation Power and Skills to heal) program on February 4 and 5. Here you will be encouraged to explore body image challenges, learn more about how to help individuals affected by eating disorders and excessive exercise and discuss healthy heating.

“It’s surprising that eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness,” says Sally Willis-Stewart, senior instructor in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. “This is particularly concerning for us on campus, which we see as a breeding ground for these disorders.”

Ninety per cent of those with eating disorders are women between 12 to 25 years old. Of these, 53 per cent say their illness first started during college. These individuals may use techniques such as binging and purging as weight management strategies. In fact, college-aged women between 18 and 21 years have higher rates of bulimia than their peers who are not in college.

“Our ongoing aim, which we highlight during Eating Disorders Week, is to encourage prevention by helping people understand these disorders and the importance of healthy attitudes towards body image, eating and physical activity,” says Mary Jung, assistant professor of human kinetics.

Where: Fipke Atrium
When: Wednesday, February 3, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. / Thursday, February 4, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

–30–

Content type: Exchange
More content from: Faculty of Health and Social Development, School of Health and Exercise Sciences

Trending Stories

  • How one student connects AI innovation to wildfire research
  • Robotics, AI advancing wildfire, agricultural research at UBCO
  • Psychedelic mushroom microdoses can improve mood, mental health
  • UBCO professor researches electric passenger light rail for Okanagan Valley
  • Putting community, students and research on the same track
All Stories
UBCO Events

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

TikTok icon Linkedin icon

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility