Thin Yale Student pressured to gain weight

Frances Chan is a History major at Yale University. However, she has a problem. Or rather Yale has a problem with her. You see, Frances weighs 92 pounds and is 5 feet 2 inches tall. That puts her in the underweight category.

Thus seeing her low poundage, the educational authorities decided to send her to medical doctors, nutritionists and mental health clinicians. The fear that she was anorexic continued to haunt the school heads who didn’t want a bad reputation for their community.

"In the past three weeks alone, I have spent ten hours at Yale Health, our student health center. Since December, I have had weekly weigh-ins and urine tests, three blood tests, appointments with a mental health counselor and a nutritionist, and even an EKG done to test my heart. My heart was fine -- as it always has been -- and so was the rest of my body. So what was the problem? The medical professionals think I have an eating disorder -- but they won't look past the number on the scale, to see the person right in front in them," thin Yale Student told HuffPost.

But Frances contends that it is not her fault that she does not gain any weight. She and her family have been naturally thin since times immemorial. Her grandparents were thin and so are her parents. She is not averse to good food since her mother makes some very filling items which include cream puffs. Yet she doesn’t gain weight so what is she supposed to do about it?

Thin Yale student, Frances Chan, said, "I've always been small. I've been 5'2'' and 90 pounds since high school, but it has never led to any illnesses related to low weight or malnutrition. My mom was the same; my whole family is skinny. We all enjoy Mom's fabulous cooking, which included Taiwanese beef noodle soup, tricolor pasta, strawberry cheesecake, and cream puffs, none of which make the Weight Watchers shortlist. I just don't gain weight easily."

But the Yale administration was adamant that she gain weight. So after the umpteenth time, Frances decided that enough was enough. She had been eating cookies and ice cream twice a day. And she never took the stairs choosing the elevator instead.

Despite all these weight gaining measures she only gained a measly two pounds. When the nutritionist told her that she should have gained five pounds she simply exploded with exasperation. Things had gone too far. She didn’t know what to do.

So Thin Yale student, Frances Chan, decided to write a letter to the Yale head explaining her Catch-22 situation. Also she wrote an article which got published. It told the sad story of how she was forced to undergo humiliating medical tests which destroyed her peace of mind.

According to Frances she almost developed an eating disorder due to the harassment she had to undergo thanks to the Yale authorities. However, now they have acknowledged their mistake and Frances will be applying herself to her studies in an effort to gain the benefits of a well-rounded education.


Read more at http://www.i4u.com/2014/04/71311/thin-yale-student-suspected-having-eating-disorder#qCleJqmxSUAlM1PZ.99