Wine and song
Yiayia’s and Club 1427 are neigh
bors and bars with a distinctive
touch. A&E, PAGE 7
Bradford’s cube
StefFon Bradford and the Nebraska
men’s basketball team take on
Friday, February 18,2000 dailyneb. com Vol 99, Issue 105 Oklahoma state this weekend
SPORTS, PAGE 12
UNL student fights eating disorders
By Cara Pesek
Staff writer
With her warm eyes, sunny smile and
athletic build, it is hard to believe that
Rochelle Larson has ever been anything
but a picture of health.
But Larson, a senior nursing major at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has
battled anorexia and bulimia for as long
as she can remember.
Now, at 22, Larson is finally on her
way to recovery from a problem she has
struggled with for most of her life.
// Larson said
As the the troubles began
when her parents
weight came divorced when
° she was about 4
back on ... / years old. As a
way of punishing
just felt really 5erself i°r ,he
J J J failure of her par
crappy about e"ts' marr‘age’
myselfT d^ndied herself
_ - „ . As the stress
Rochelk Larson 0f the divorce
senior nursing major subsided, Larson
said, the urge to
starve herself also waned.
Then, in junior high, it returned.
“I think in junior high, a lot of us girls
just wanted to lose some weight,” Larson
said.
The girls experimented with various
weight loss methods, and one day, one of
Larson’s classmates dared her to make
herself throw up.
Larson accepted the dare but said
bulimia didn’t take right away for her.
Instead, Larson became anorexic and
slowly began to cut certain foods she
deemed too fattening out of her diet.
At first she ate no red meat. Then she
ate no meat at all. And then she wouldn’t
eat cheese or milk. Finally, Larson said,
all foods with any fat content at all were
off limits.
Larson said the desire to have a per
fect body was further fueled by her per
fectionist attitude.
When she was 14, Larson was 5 foot,
7 inches tall and weighed only 80
pounds.
“It got to the point where the only
thing I could do was lie in bed and wish
that I would just die,” Larson said.
Larson, with the help of her friends,
realized the seriousness of her illness and
began to eat again.
Then she faced another problem.
“As the weight came back on, the
thought processes came back where I just
felt really crappy about myself,” Larson
said.
To cope with the negative feelings,
she said she became bulimic.
When the eating disorder was at its
worst, Larson said, she threw up as often
as 15 times a day. In addition, she often
exercised for four hours a day or more.
But because she was not as thin as she
had been when she was anorexic, few
realized she had a problem.
“Bulimia is so horrible because you
just hide everything,” Larson said.
By the time Larson was a sophomore
in college, she realized she needed to get
help.
Before that, Larson said, she never
sought help because she thought she
could overcome her eating disorder on
her own.
But getting help also proved to be dif
ficult, Larson said.
Although she went to various support
groups, she said she never found a coun
selor she felt comfortable with.
Larson said her concern about her
problem grew.
“I thought I’d never get rid of it,”
Larson said.
Please see DISORDER on 6
Photo Illustration by Heather Glenboski/DN
All ESTIMATED 2,500 women at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln struggle with eating disorders.
Some people with eating disorders believe they are overweight, even if they are thin.
Kerrey awards medal of hope
Lydia S. Gonzales/DN
SECOND-GRADER JOSE MOORE and San. Bab Kerrey than a laugh befere
ha praaaata her with the Napa Medal af Honor at Maxey Elementary
Cnhikwl Vwwmi lllranait ilnmwlii Mm a# BBguMAr
vCnOula MlVVy tIKOIIOQ IVVUDro S wwvwHpillMNwl 10 IVO 00091 or Honor*
ByGwenTletgen
Staff writer
Inspiration.
Webster’s defines it as any
stimulus to creative thought or
action.
Maxey Elementary School
and Heroes of Hope defines it
with second-grader Josie
Moore.
With more than 488 ele
mentary school children and
teachers sitting on die auditori
um floor, Sen. Bob Kerrey pre
sented Josie with the Children Is
Hope Medal of Honor.
After being presented with
the medal, Josie was given a
chance to speak.
Sitting in her wheelchair,
with Minnie and Mickey
Mouse lying (Hi her lap, with a
quiet voice and a big smile,
Josie said: “I want to thank all
my teachers for teaching me
stuff, and I want to thank my
mommy and daddy for giving
me die life to go (to school).
“I got a medal because of
all my obstacles and all my
cares.”
John Berge, special assis
tant to Kerrey, said the
Children’s Hope Medal of
Honor is one of die first of its
kind.
“It’s a nationwide award
recognizing kids who are phys
ically or mentally handicapped
and continue to march on,”
Berge said.
Josie suffers from quadri
plegia as a result of birth injury.
She relies on a ventilator to
breathe, a tube for food and a
special suit to sit upright. J
Berge has been helping
Josie and her parents, Rodney
and Holly Moore, since they
came to Kerrey’s office in
1998.
Please see HOPE on 6
Researchers
investigate
cataract cause
ByJohnHejkal
Staff writer
All people today who live past the age of 60 will
develop cataracts - unless the work of people like Jean
and David Smith changes that probability. ;
♦Jean Smith and her husband David, both profes
sors of chemistry at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, are researching the changes in the protein '
structure of eye lenses to determine what causes
cataracts.
A cataract is a yellowing or coloring of the lens
that can severely inhibit or totally block vision.
Cataracts are generally associated with old age.
The Smiths are using various methods of mass
spectrometry to determine the mass of proteins in die
lens. Mass spectrometry makes it possible to weigh
Please see CATARACTS on 6