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Mike Williams asks why so many people want to be thin in a world grappling with obesity. Are we hard-wired to like a certain body shape or is β€œthin” just a passing fashion?

For thousands of years, a thin body was a sign of poverty or disease. But there is now a growing, global obsession with being thin. And this at a time when many populations around the world are, paradoxically, suffering epidemics of obesity. Mike Williams finds out why, as he speaks to former French model Victoire Macon Dauxerre, Tony Glenville from the London College of Fashion, Anne Becker from Harvard Medical School, Professor John Speakman from University of Aberdeen and Etta Edim from Nigeria’s Efik tribe.

Image: A vendor arranges stick-thin mannequins in a store in China (Credit: China Photos/Getty Images)

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18 minutes

Last on

Mon 30 May 2016 14:32GMT

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  • Fri 27 May 2016 21:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 01:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 02:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 03:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 04:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 06:32GMT
  • Mon 30 May 2016 14:32GMT

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