During this election season I hope candidates and students learned a little something. Thanks to your thoughts, comments and concerns, I know The Battalion staff has.
In student body elections, a few Aggies will be chosen to fill a small number of posi-tions where they will represent nearly 50,000 students. As the primary media outlet cover-ing student body elections, we take coverage seriously.
Some news coverage has come under fire, as hap-pens during elections, when the student body is divided into factions of supporters for various candidates. This dynamic culminated in the act of stealing thousands of issues of Monday’s edition of The Battalion.
At The Battalion, we strive to keep the student body informed to the best of our ability on the candidates and the issues. Unfortunately, what might be relevant news to one student could be “muck-raking” to another student. Reporting information on one candidate might be seen as unfair to that individual’s supporters, but not reporting it would be unfair to the other candidates and our readers. While some candidates might
Jake Ross — THE BATTALION
Texas has five of the 10 fattest cities in America
The flabby fiveMaybe everything is bigger in Texas.
According to recent men’s health re-search, Texas has five of the top 10 fat-test cities in the U.S. in the past year. The rankings are based off of the over-weight and diabetes type 2 populations, the percentage of people who haven’t left their couch in a month from CDC reports, the money spent on junk food from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the number of people who ate fast food nine or more times in a month from Mediamark Research.
In 2010, the Texas Department of State Health Services estimated spending
$15 billion on overweight and obesity related health problems. Dr. John Sim-mons, assistant professor of family and community medicine and physician for the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, said such reports of obesity in Texas are not surprising.
“This is something to be expected. Texas is always ranked between eight and 15 on fattest states in the nation. The BMI, body mass index, relating the height and weight of a person, give you a number. The higher the number, the worse, a BMI of 25 is overweight, and 30 and up is obese,” Simmons said. “To give you an idea, the average American male is 5 feet 9 inches, so being at 175 pounds, you are considered overweight,
and at 200 pounds, obese. The average American female is 5 feet 4 inches and overweight at 150, obese at 175 pounds. Two-thirds of the U.S. now is over-weight 25 percent of the U.S. popula-tion is obese.”
Simmons said the rates of overweight and obese people have increased expo-nentially over the past 10 years, and it’s up to society to realize that things need to change before they get out of hand.
“The average overweight person spends $1,500 more a year in health care costs than a healthy person. A lot of Texans are on Medicaid so they’re not actually paying that medical bill but
Amber JauraThe Battalion
Texas top 10Five of the top 10 fattest cities are in Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Service estimated spending $15 billion on overweight and obesity related problems.No. 1: Corpus ChristiNo. 3: El PasoNo. 4: DallasNo. 7: San AntonioNo. 9: Houston
Firefighters have responsibil-ities and obligations to uphold rescue procedures within the community. The College Sta-tion Citizen’s Fire Academy is a program for people who want to learn more about the local fire department. Participants range in age from18 to 80 years old. Day-to-day operations, injury and fire prevention pro-grams are taught to participants.
“The most important thing is to educate citizens about what we actually do,” said Cindy Gie-draitis, who is involved in public education about the Fire Acad-emy.
The academy is offered dur-ing the spring Monday evenings and runs for 11 weeks. There
is a live fire burn demonstra-tion, as well as CPR and first aid courses provided to partici-pants.
“The class is a taste of what it would be like to have the abilities that firefighters need,” Giedraitis said.
Many class participants have stories and experiences from the training. A community action response team was organized out of the first academy alumni association.
“The first class wanted to keep helping citizens and get involved by staying, giving and doing, so they became the liaisons between the victims of the fire and getting life back to normal, ” Giedraitis said.
Part of the impact of the academy is the difference and understanding of the citizens
Christine PerrenotThe Battalion
when the classes end.“After every class a student can
be heard saying ‘wow,’” Giedraitis said.
With the largest group of res-idents in the area being student renters, it becomes increasingly important for students to un-derstand safety and how to be cautious.
“It helps if the public un-
derstands the training we do, as each specialization takes special training,” said Bart Humphreys, public information, research and planning officer.
The academy provides in-formation on the hiring process for firefighters, safety education and CPR training, portable fire
Friends remember student as positive
Nicolis “Nico” Ter-rel Williams, from Sugar Land, died Feb. 11, at the College Station Medical Center after being hospi-talized for bacterial meningitis. William’s death impacted the Aggie family, and he is missed by his friends and loved ones.
Nico, 20, graduated from Kempner High School and was a junior economics major at Texas A&M. He made many positive contributions to the University through his involvement in FLIP, Fish Camp and CARPOOL.
“This kid touched a lot of people,” said Nico’s father, Greg Williams.
Nico was a student worker at Evans Library and a research assistant at the Educational Psychology PRA lab during his time
Christine Perrenot The Battalion
J.D. Swiger — THE BATTALION
Participants in the College Station Citizen’s Fire Academy practice typical procedures for extinguishing fires.
See Williams on page 6See Academy on page 4
community silver taps
In an effort to keep an article published in Monday’s paper from being read, Corps members took editions of The Battalion from several campus stands but returned some by mid-morning.
Brett Bergamo, a senior information and operations management major and head yell leader, said cadets were told at a meet-ing Sunday night not to take Monday’s
newspapers. The Corps was aware that a story would be published Monday regard-ing the behavior of Josh Light, a junior yell leader candidate.
“We told them that we want this to get out, we feel like it was appropriate, and we were comfortable with this coming out be-cause we knew that this was something the student body needed to know,” Bergamo said. “We specifically said do not take Bat-talions in the morning.”
Bergamo said he knows of a group of
cadets who took copies of the newspaper, but he said the cadets put them back before 9 a.m.
“I was at Wehner, and I saw them put them back at 9 o’clock,” Bergamo said. “They said they returned them, and I believe them. I don’t know if there was a completely different incident, but the group that I caught returned [the papers]. They said they took them from West
Megan RyanThe Battalion
Cadets take newspapers on campus
See Newspapers on page 2
thebatt.comThe Battalion’sendorseeThe Battalion editorial board interviewed candidates and chose to endorse Hilary Albrecht for student body president. Reasons for this endorsement can be found on thebatt.com.
VVOTEggieland
22011
Primary voting for the 2011-2012 yell leaders, student senate and student body president positions is today. Runoffs, if necessary, will be Thursday and Friday.
Taylor Wolken
junior economics major
Mistakes are all but guaranteed
during the college experience, but when properly handled, they can provide the best lessons and develop the strongest character.
Making sense of issues‘The Battalion’ aims to serve students by reporting as fair and balanced as possible
voices
See Lessons on page 2
Nov. 13, 1990 - Feb. 11, 2011Nicolis Terrel Williams
Nico poured into other people and had a very positive outlook.
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THE TEXAS A&M STUDENT MEDIA BOARDINVITES APPLICATIONS FOR
thebattalion
Application forms should be picked up and returned to Sandi Jones, Student Media business coordinator, in room 013 of Bldg. #8901 in The Grove (between Albritton Bell Tower and Cain Hall). Deadline for submitting application: 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2011.
An equal opportunity, affirmative action employer committed to diversity
Editor
Qualifications for editor-in-chief of The Battalion are:
REQUIRED
the term of office (unless fewer credits are required to graduate);
student) and at least a 2.25 grade point ratio (3.25 if a graduate student) in the semester immediately prior to the appointment, the semester of appointment and semester during the term of office. In
student) must have been taken for that semester.
PREFERREDHave completed JOUR 301 or COMM 307 (Mass Communication, Law, and Society) or equivalent;
position on The Battalion or comparable daily college newspaper, – OR –
newspaper, – OR – Have completed at least 12 hours in journalism, including
JOUR 203 (Media Writing I) and JOUR 303 (Media Writing II) or
SERVING TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SINCE 1893
Summer 2011(The summer editor will serve
May 15 through Aug. 13, 2011)
Fall 2011–Spring 2012(The fall and spring editor will serve
Aug. 14, 2011, through May 12, 2012)
THE BATTALION (ISSN #1055-4726) is published daily , Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Monday through Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University. Periodicals Postage Paid at College Station, TX 77840. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion , Texas A&M University , 1111 T AMU, College Station, TX 77843-1111.
News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at T exas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. News offices are in The Grove, Bldg. 8901. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3313; Fax: 979-845-2647; E-mail: [email protected]; website: http://www.thebatt.com.
Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979-845-2696. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Advertising offices are in The Grove, Bldg. 8901, and office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Fax: 979-845-2678.
Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1. Mail subscriptions are $125 per school year. To charge by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express, call 979-845-2613.
Matt Woolbright, Editor in Chief
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE OF TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893thebattalion
fully equipped
2 Primary election
resultsPrimary election results for student body president, student senate and yell leaders will be announced at 8 p.m. today in Academic Plaza.
1 Silver TapsSilver Taps will begin
at 10:30 p.m. today in Academic Plaza to honor the student who died this past month, Nicolis Terrel Williams. The parents of Taylor Gillespie will be in attendance to honor their son, who was honored at last month’s Silver Taps.
3 Graduate school
A graduate school information session will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the exhibit hall of Rudder Theatre Complex.
pagetwoFor daily updates go to thebatt.com ● Facebook ● Twitter@thebattonline
Campus and Northside, and they said they returned them to those places.”
Keith Marrocco, class of 1990 and soft-ware developer for the division of student affairs, saw students in T-shirts and shorts with “Corps haircuts” walking into the Stu-dent Recreation Center.
“Around 7 a.m., as I was leaving the Rec, there was some apparent Corps members, but they were wearing non-reg clothes, so it’s hard to say for sure. I thought they were coming in to work out, but they grabbed a stack of newspapers and walked off with them in their arms,” Marracco said. “Re-gardless of the content of the newspaper, that is a very dishonorable thing to do.”
Marrocco contacted Matt Woolbright, editor-in-chief of The Battalion, of the inci-dent by e-mail.
“I heard about the incident from an upset University staff member around 10 a.m.,” said Woolbright, a junior sociology major. “Within an hour, I had covered main cam-pus and discovered that thousands of news-papers were missing. By 3 p.m., I finished a second walk and some were back, but by that time the majority of students who nor-mally read had missed it.”
According to the Student Press Law Cen-ter, “publishing a student newspaper is an expensive undertaking; student newspaper thieves deprive rightful owners of their valu-able property. Among other expenses, stu-dent news organizations pay editorial staff to produce the newspaper, advertising staff t o sell ads, printers to print it and circulation staff to distribute the finished product.”
Advertisers will be offered make-goods totaling $5,447.32, said Robert Wegener, general manager of Student Media. There were 18,000 copies of The Battalion printed Monday.
Sarah Smith, a freshman internation-al studies major and staff writer for The Battalion, was disheartened because she worked on a story that appeared on the front page Monday.
“I put a lot of time and effort into writ-
ing for The Battalion because it’s something I love to do. This just left a really bad taste in my mouth,” Smith said.
As editor-in-chief of The Battalion, Wool-bright said most students don’t understand the amount of work that goes into publish-ing a newspaper each day.
“There is an incredible amount of time and effort that goes into each copy of The Battalion,” Woolbright said. “From the pho-tographers and writers to the editors and de-signers, so much is poured into our product. To see a day’s work, not to mention the time taken on assignment, go unnoticed and information remain unknown is just unfor-tunate.”
Letting thieves get away with newspaper theft threatens the viability of free press, ac-cording to the Student Press Law Center.
“We will be working to figure out who is responsible and seeing that this is some-thing they can learn from,” Woolbright said. “It’s a serious matter, not just something we can, or will, ignore. We plan to file a com-plaint with the University and handle the incident through the judicial systems.”
NewspapersContinued from page 1
have controversial issues come to light, not every candidate will.
While we believe in second chances at The Battalion, we also believe that students and candidates are responsible for their actions, past and present. How they handle themselves in light of and react to adversity is as important to student leadership as being the loudest and proudest member of the Twelfth Man. Some candidates might bear responsibility for their actions, some might not, but each candidate elected will go forward representing Texas A&M with all their strengths and all their flaws, whether or not we are aware of these qualities.
As a student newspaper serving some of the premiere students in the country, we choose to report the news and present as much informa-tion as possible. We leave it to each discerning individual to weigh issues and decide for themselves.
Regarding our endorsements, it was the result of debate, delibera-tion and ultimately approval from our editorial board, on which I am a member. Concerning our reporting, it is not influenced by our endorse-ment choice, but our endorsement choice was influenced by the news and information available.
We look forward to this elec-tion week and seeing which candi-dates will be given the honor and opportunity of representing our esteemed University. We hope that you, the student body, will continue to read and engage The Battalion through our various out-lets and continue to let your voice be heard as we strive to represent you fairly, openly and honestly. We strive to improve daily.
You are the heart of Aggieland.
LessonsContinued from page 1
Matt Woolbright — THE BATTALION
The stands at G. Rollie White and many other campus locations were empty Monday.
Students will have the chance to paint a canvas and learn about the arts and entertainment programs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Koldus Student Services Building Plaza.
5 ‘Tron’ screening
MSC Aggie Cinema Blockbuster presents: Tron: Legacy at 7 p.m. Friday outside the Clayton Williams Alumni Center.
4 Opening night of
International Week Opening ceremonies for International Week begin at 8 p.m. Friday in Studio 12 of the Commons. Aggie Nights present “Dance Around the World.”
2 U.S., Islam
lecture John L. Esposito will speak for “The U.S. and the Muslim World: Where do we go from here?” at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Rudder, room 601.
3 Post-racial dilemma
lecture The Africana Studies Program Lecture Series presents “Africana Studies and Afrocentricity: The Post Racial Dilemma in the Academy” with Molefi Kete Asante all day Wednesday in the Evans Annex, Room 204E.
Student a capella event impresses audience
In fact, it was so epic that my laptop’s battery died (and went to laptop battery heaven), prob-ably because it realized that it would never again hear anything so wonderful in this world.
Acappellooza included singing groups from universities both in and out of Texas. It was organized by Texas A&M’s own HardChord DynaMix, and proceeds went to music arts pro-grams in public schools.
“It was a really awesome experience to get together with so many great singers from other schools for a good cause. They were all incred-ible people, and I really enjoyed meeting and singing with them,” said Andrew O’Leary, a senior management information systems major and HardChord DynaMix member.
Each performance was done well and each group had its specialty. Some were comical, some theatrical. Others demonstrated beauty in quiet precision, while others pushed the limits of vocal performance.
The show started with a bang. The groups
took the stage at once and delivered a bold rendition of “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, which set a fast-paced and lively atmosphere that persisted throughout the night.
“I loved the open-ing act; having all eight groups on stage made the performance so fun and energetic. The solo was split between about 20
singers that would run or dance to the center of the stage, so it showed the uniqueness of each group and kept the audience wondering what would happen next,” said Lauren Havelka, a freshman general studies major.
The first to perform was HardChord Dy-naMix, who sang “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri. Mayra Loera, a sophomore communica-tion major, flawlessly delivered the lead part, and the rest of the group replicated the music track vocally. Pitches and harmonies were spot on — evidence talent, dedication and many hours of practice.
The next group to perform was the Femmatas, the all-female group from A&M. The members sang “Always Be my Baby” by Mariah Carey and “Chasing Pavements” by Adele. The Femmatas take what might ordinarily be a disadvantage, the lack of tenor or bass voices, and turn it into an advantage by focusing on the intricacies of the fe-male voice and showcasing its abilities as distinct from male vocals.
Next up was The Green Tones from the
Mayra Loera, a sophomore communication major, leads a solo in HardChord DynaMix’s rendition of “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri during Saturday evening’s performance.
J.D. Swiger — THE BATTALION
In an encore by HardChord DynaMix at Sunday evening’s Acappellooza, the audience was
treated to a fantastic performance of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” This was one of the most memorable performances of the night and every member of Hard-Chord deserves a delicious cookie.
Got a Student ID?Present it when purchasing
a regular or large sub combo deal
and receive another sub of equal or less value free.
Warrants are available on the web at www.cstx.gov/warrants
WARRANT ROUND-UPFEB. 28 - MARCH 11
COLLEGE STATION MUNICIPAL COURT
College Station Municipal Court and the surrounding Justice of the Peace of ces will conduct a warrant round-up from Feb. 28 - March 11th. If you have a warrant out of College Station Municipal Court please contact the court to avoid being ar-rested at your home, school, or job. The Court will be open Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the remainder of the week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. To contact the court please call 979-764-3683.
Save the Date!Parents’ Weekend 2011
Friday, April 15 through Sunday, April 17
Are your parents awesome?Want to show your appreciation and
let everyone know about them?
Nominate them for Texas A&M University’sParents of the Year 2011-2012
Applications are now available at: http://parentsweekend.tamu.edu Parents’ Weekend Cube in Koldus
Presented by:
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ENGAGEMENT RING EVENTFriday, March 4 - Saturday, March 5
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Striking the right chord
See Acappellooza on page 7
University of North Texas. The group sang, “Wanted” by Jesse James, which featured a fe-male lead with a rich, sultry tone. The percussive arrangement included particularly talented bass, which contrasted and complemented the lead extremely well. The arrangement sounded more like rock than a capella. The group’s second song was “AutoTune Medley,” a vocal arrangement of popular Internet memes, including the famous Antoine Dodson interview (“He’s climbin in yo windows, he’s snatchin yo people up…”), fol-lowed seamlessly by “Double Rainbow.”
The Men of Moores from the University of Houston were the first to feature choreography, to which the members performed a Lady Gaga medley, starting with “Monster,” which blended seamlessly into “Bad Romance” and gave a nod to “Telephone” as the medley reached its end. The arrangement blended the songs in a way that each one complemented the whole piece,
and it was delivered in a unique way which made the most of the a cappella style rather than attempting to recreate the studio version. The Men of Moores went for a different style in their next number, “Signed, Sealed, Deliv-ered” by Stevie Wonder, which had a decidedly gospel flavor to it.
A&M’s Swaram was up next. The lights came up, revealing the group clad in grayscale, and they began the first number, a mash up of “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis and “Jaane Kya Chahe Mann” by Pyar Ke Side Effects.
Swaram was noticeably more theatrical than the rest. The group featured choreography in the performance and exchanged lead vocalists several times throughout the song without interrupting the flow. One of the leads hit an especially high note right on pitch, and a cheer from the audi-
Graduating from A&M Con-solidated High School, Gilbert began drawing a crowd early in her high school career. As a junior, she averaged a double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds per game. Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair, howev-er, saw Gilbert’s potential before she entered the ninth grade.
“When I started middle school, Coach Blair was the first one to come to all my games and everything else,” Gilbert said. “It was a good reason to come to A&M.”
A 2010 McDonald’s All-American, Gilbert was ranked the No. 1 post player in the country and ninth overall by ESPN HoopGurlz. Despite her connections to A&M, Gilbert also considered leaving home for college.
“I liked other teams, but I never really thought hard about where I was going,” Gilbert said. “It was just wherever I liked in the back of my mind. I thought about leaving College Station. I looked but really didn’t like it, so
I came back home.”In the end, Blair convinced
Gilbert that she was meant to be an Aggie, and she chose A&M over several women’s basketball powerhouses including Baylor, Duke and Connecticut. Now Gilbert has developed a strong sense of identity with both the school and her teammates.
“As a team, I like how we always have each other’s back,” Gilbert said. “If we have a down-fall in practice, we’re going to try to pick it up and try to end on a good note. We’re together every day, so we really don’t have to worry much team cohesiveness. We’ve already bonded with each other and know what each of us likes and doesn’t like.”
Gilbert comes from a ter-rific pedigree of success on the basketball court. Her mother, Nelda, played the game at North Texas and was Karla’s head coach in high school. A member of the 1983 Southwest Conference Newcomer Team, Gilbert’s fa-ther, Jimmie, played basketball at A&M from 1983-1986.
“As a kid I was born and raised in College Station, and I started to come to the games,” Gilbert said. “I kind of grew into the tradition of A&M. I didn’t know everything about it but I’ve grown to like it.”
Already showing her potential in her first collegiate season, Gil-bert has given the Aggies another tall body in the post but has also displayed her unique talents on the floor. She is averaging 4.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in the 2010-2011 season. Despite her success this season, Blair still sees room for improvement.
“She’s very fundamental catching the ball and scoring with her left,” Blair said. “However, she’s having trouble scoring with her right, and she’s right-handed because she doesn’t extend the ball to its highest point with her right. With the left hand, it’s fine. We’re not going to fix that in one game. It will probably be over the summer. If there’s anybody that needs to play summer ball, it’s Karla so she can get a little bit more confidence.”
In Gilbert’s first collegiate start, she recorded eight points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven blocks on the de-fensive end. Facing one of the toughest matchups in colle-giate basketball, she played an excellent game against Baylor All-American center Brittney Griner. Gilbert pulled in a ca-reer-high eight rebounds and effectively slowed down Gri-ner during A&M’s 67-58 loss
in Waco.Gilbert’s level of play recently
has not come easy, however. Ag-gies’ sophomore center Kelsey Bone has been working every day to help Gilbert reach her full potential and that hard work is starting to pay off. Bone and Gilbert’s friendship, since playing summer ball in high school to-gether, has given Gilbert a valu-able mentor.
“She helped me a lot be-cause she’s more physical and has helped me toughen up,” Gilbert said. “She has played longer than I have, so she introduced me to new stuff. With her, you know what you need to work on more because she will expose that.”
Bone agreed with her.“From my point, it’s about
trying to get her tougher,” Bone said. “I try to get her not to see our friendship sometimes be-cause Karla is one of the sweet-est people you’ll ever meet and sometimes that carries over to the court. Sometimes I try to pro-voke her and will hit her really hard to get that fight out of her. Lately, it’s been going really well. She’s starting to get comfortable with college and exert herself. She’s trying to show everyone that the transition period is over, and she has grown up fast.”
Despite the bright future that lies ahead for Gilbert, she is mak-ing sure to not get too ahead of herself. Gilbert said she is focus-ing on her success at A&M but would like to play in the WNBA if the opportunity presents itself
when she’s done.”“Of course I think about it and
if it’s there in a few years, I’ll take it,” she said.
As the Aggie women prepare for the Big 12 and NCAA Tour-
naments, the play of Karla Gilbert could determine how far A&M can go. The solid post player off the bench could make the differ-ence as the Aggies chase their first Final Four appearance.
CONROE
CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
4th AnnualTEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAYMusic Fest & Chili Cook Off
Saturday, March 5th
Charlie RobisonDouble R Nothin Shellee Coley
Jubal Lee Young Scooter Brown Jesse Dayton
Sunday, March 6th
Cody Canada & The DepartedMason Lankford & The Folk Family Revival
Dustin Welch Band
March 5th (OPEN cook off) March 6th (CASI cook off) Heritage Place Amphitheatre in Historic Downtown Conroe, TXFor more info call 936-788-5819 or visit www.TexasIndependenceDay.org
$2500 Chili 1st Place Prize
sports thebattalion 03.01.2011
page5
football | Von Miller had an impressive showing at the NFL Combine Monday, registering a 4.53 40-yard dash, a 6.7 3-cone shuttle, an 11.15 60-yard shuttle, a 37 inch vertical jump and a 10 foot 6 inch broad jump. Miller also weighed in at 246 pounds. The performance has pundits and experts calling Miller a surefire Top-10 pick and one of the best players in April’s NFL Draft.
College Station native Gilbert adjusts to life in college
Hometown hero
Courtesy photo
Mike Teague The Battalion
A hometown hero that was highly sought-after coming out of high school, Texas A&M freshman center and Col-
lege Station-native Karla Gilbert is on her way to becoming a household name on the Aggie women’s basketball team.
Freshman center Karla Gilbert is averaging 4.6 points per game this season.
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thebattalion
entertainment&newspage 8
tuesday 3.1.2011
Adrian Calcaneo — THE BATTALION
the Texas taxpayers are. It’s a drain on society, and we can’t afford it. Look at it from a health standpoint, financial standpoint, and look at it as the future of our children, the next generation will be more over-weight with problems of blood pressure and diabetes.”
Texas is the seventh in the na-tion for teenage obesity, with 20 percent of teens in crisis. Sim-mons said one way Texas legis-lators are dealing with this issue by making stricter standards for school lunches than other states as they realize the problem is worse in Texas and they hold the responsibility to supply chil-dren with proper nutrition.
“So many young people we see with diabetes type 2, their pancreas destroyed at such an early age, something that would be unheard of 10 or 15 years ago. The obesity rate for teenagers is extremely high and with the adults we’re already at the top of the list so our teenag-ers could move us even further up. And there’s no age group
demographic that we’re favor-able in.” Simmons said. “There’s no healthy diet. Whatever you do has to be a life-long commit-ment a lifestyle. All states in the south, in the southeast primarily, obesity is concentrated, not from demographics per-se, but from some of the habits we have. We don’t exercise; we eat worse and more than the rest of the coun-try. Barbeque, fried food, burg-ers and cheesy tortillas, that’s what we eat in Texas. ”
Simmons said that while some genetic components ap-ply for obesity the biggest con-tributing factor is the culture the person was raised in and the decisions they make. He said about 75 percent of the patients he sees are overweight.
Cassandra McDonough, a research scientist under AgriL-ife on snack foods, said that de-spite the unhealthy habits most food companies are actually try-ing to change our ways by mak-ing their products healthier.
“Companies come across as being cold-hearted and money grabbing, but their wealth is based on your health and so if you’re not around to buy their products anymore they lose,”
McDonough said. “They’re hiring on nutritionists to teach the food scientists how to gen-erate a healthier product and get nutrition back into the food. In the ’70s and ’80s they put a lot of chemicals and foods coloring in things but now the nutritionists are saying take this out or do this instead and it’s much healthier.”
McDonough said that food companies don’t advertise the foods as being healthier as people tend to keep away from the products hesitate of their new taste, yet the infor-mation is required to be on the product so many of them sell the idea of a healthier product without sacrificing taste.
“The industries are target-ing snack food users as they’ve recognized the same [health] problems and have this infor-mation,” McDonough said.
Laura Zimmerer, Food Sci-ence Club President at A&M, said that now, more than ever, we need to focus on leading a healthy lifestyle.
“We should use that as a wake-up call to change our habits,” Zimmerer said.
