Schools to focus on eating disorders

Elena Estanol had to stay thin.

Her aspirations of becoming a professional dancer demanded it, prompting her to forgo meals to keep her slender form.

The sparse meals didn't seem like an eating disorder to Estanol, who followed her strict diet well into her college career at the University of Utah. But the young dancer finally admitted she had anorexia the day her eating habits shattered her dreams.

She couldn't dance.

Estanol's malnourished body was too thin to keep dancing, and frequent stress fractures relegated her to the sidelines.

"The one thing I had wanted most — to be a professional dancer — was taken away from me because of the eating disorder," said Estanol, who is now a U. doctoral student in counseling psychology. "It was kind of an awakening for me to realize that I needed to do something."

Estanol was able to get her body back on track after therapy and time away from the dance floor and is now working to help other college students recover from eating disorders, ranging from restrictive diets to anorexia and bulimia.

Along with other body-image activists, Estanol will be helping spread awareness about the prevalence of eating disorders on college campuses during "Love Your Body" week at the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College and Westminster College.

"We see a huge increase in eating disorders in college women because that is a huge transition period. They leave home, start to view themselves as adults and fully enter the dating scene," said Estanol, a member of Students Promoting Eating Disorder Awareness and Knowledge (SPEAK) at the U. "They feel a little bit out of control and the focus on weight seems to be a lot easier to handle."

The weeklong series of lectures and events will focus on how to accept different body sizes without catering to the ideal of the perfect woman, said Justine Reel, founder of SPEAK and a U. professor of exercise science. The activities, which begin at SLCC at noon Tuesday, kick off a national Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

Although some of the week's events will include students like Estanol who recovered from eating disorders, the real emphasis will be on being happy with "whatever size or whatever number the scale says," Reel said.

"If they can get the awareness and the treatment they need in the college years, hopefully they can have healthy and productive and happy lives. There's a whole life ahead of them," said Reel, who noted nearly 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies.