Thin
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 鈥渢hin鈥 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鈥檚 Efik tribe.
Image: A vendor arranges stick-thin mannequins in a store in China (Credit: China Photos/Getty Images)
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Clip
-
I ate just three apples a day
Duration: 01:58
Broadcasts
- Fri 27 May 2016 21:32GMT麻豆社 World Service except East and Southern Africa & News Internet
- Mon 30 May 2016 01:32GMT麻豆社 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 30 May 2016 02:32GMT麻豆社 World Service Online, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Mon 30 May 2016 03:32GMT麻豆社 World Service East Asia & South Asia only
- Mon 30 May 2016 04:32GMT麻豆社 World Service Australasia
- Mon 30 May 2016 06:32GMT麻豆社 World Service Europe and the Middle East & East and Southern Africa only
- Mon 30 May 2016 14:32GMT麻豆社 World Service except News Internet
Get the podcast
Subscribe or download individual episodes for free
Why do we look the way we do?
Tattoos, trainers, jeans, hair, ties ... why?
Podcast
-
The Why Factor
The extraordinary and hidden histories behind everyday objects and actions