login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
Thinner Italian Women in a 'Fatter' Western World - How?
Experts told AFP it's all thanks to major cultural changes in Italy, a healthy Mediterranean diet and simply paying more attention to waistlines.
The ideal of beauty is "very different from the post-war period if you look at photos of actresses from the 1950s" like Sofia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida, said Maria Rosaria D'Isanto, a nutritional expert in Treviso in northern Italy.
A global study published in British medical journal The Lancet backs her up, finding that the Body Mass Index (BMI) for Italian women has fallen from 25.2 in 1980 to 24.9 in 1990 and 24.8 in 2008, bucking the trend seen elsewhere.
In Britain, the average BMI for women has risen from 24.2 in 1980, to 25.2 in 1990, 26.2 in 2000 and 26.9 in 2008. For US women the increase in BMI has been even more stark -- from 25.0 in 1980 to 28.3 in 2008.
D'Isanto said Italian women are just more informed about weight issues.
"The level of education has risen and with that so has the consciousness of the correlation between excessive weight and health. We have a new generation that is not the 'fat is beautiful' one," she said.
Another important factor was "the re-evaluation during the 1980s of the Mediterranean diet" based on olive oil and rich in fibres, she added.
|
|
|
More News on: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
- News Quick Links
| News Categories: |
| » | Vivek Oberoi Says There is No Smoking on His Sets |
| » | Gasoigne Swaps Booze for Botox |
| » | Michelle Obama: Name of Olive Tree in Italy |
| » | Beyonce: Most Beautiful Women in the World |
| » | Robin Gibb Recovers from Coma Wakes Up to Cancer |
| More Celebrity News | |
|
