Marketing sophomore Terese Landa said she is glad she doesn’t have to watch what she eats or worry about gaining weight, especially during the holiday season when food becomes the center of attention.

But Landa is not the only student who doesn’t see drastic changes when looking at the scale during the holidays.

Although there’s not a severe rise in body weight during the holiday season, percentage of body fat and fat mass might still increase, according to a 2006 study published in Nutrition & Metabolism, which surveyed the eating habits of 82 college-aged students throughout the holiday season. The study concludes the scale alone is not an accurate way to measure overall health during the holidays.

However, the obsession and anxiety that comes with food is not only evident on Thanksgiving, Bokram said. It continues throughout the entire holiday season, from the end of November through Jan. 1 — thanks, in part, to the media, Bokram said.

Although Tommie Mianecki, an apparel and textile design sophomore, said she can’t wait to eat dinner Thursday night, she agrees media outlets might be the origin of anxiety others experience when faced with a Thanksgiving Day feast.

“There are always diet commercials or newspaper ads about not gaining weight,” Mianecki said.

The diet industry is only one way these negative messages make their way to the public, Bokram said.

“There are so many magazine articles about how not to eat too much or gain weight during the holidays,” she said. “The idea that people have to diet throughout the holidays makes people more anxious with food. And it’s worse for people who already have anxiety around food.”

Bokram said articles about overeating during Thanksgivings might have overweight and obese individuals in mind. However, the media’s efforts to lower rates of obesity seem to have a greater impact on those with a different mentality about food.

“(The media is) not helping the people they’re trying to help and they’re hurting other people,” Bokram said. “Besides, even if we overeat sometimes it’s not a big deal. The things we do occasionally really don’t matter.”

Food becomes a focus during the holiday season, more so than any other time of year, because every event that takes place within that period of time uses food as the center of a social event or holiday, Bokram said.

Though food plays a prominent role in each holiday celebrated this season, it’s important to think about why each holiday is celebrated in the first place, Bokram said.

“You have to think about what the holiday is really about,” Bokram said. “Distract yourself from thinking about food. Think, who are the people around the table, what is really the meaning of the holiday? Don’t make it about the food.

“The food is part of what we do, but really it’s about being thankful and being with certain people. Focus on that.”