It’s interesting how your cultural background influences the way you perceive yourself and those around you. In our advanced western culture it’s nothing less than a deadly sin to be bigger than a size ten. The more ribs pop through your skin, the more D&G underwear adverts you’re able to star in. But lets remove the blinkers the media likes to drape over our overexposed heads and consider how other cultures deal with the ‘fat’ issue.

Recent studies have documented the effect different cultures can have on a person’s self-image.

The research concentrated on African American and Asian women, taking into account their predisposed cultural heritage and how prevalent eating disorders are in their communities. Researchers found that African American women have fuller figures because of their African heritage.

Being a large woman in Africa shows strength, wealth and the success of one’s husband. The genetic traits of the African gene in African American women cause their bodies to be prone to bigger thighs and bums. The innate sense of pride in their appearance reduces the risk of developing eating disorders or depression. Their self image is far better than the Caucasian perception of beauty and health.

Eating disorders are more popular among the Western Caucasian populations, because we simply cannot accept that fat is anything but ugly. Western and Eastern cultures were studied to discover why anorexia is such a widespread disease in America, but hardly at all in Asia. It was discovered that while our eating habits are similar, our body image differs a lot. Caucasian American’s want to be thinner while Asians want to be more petite.

But as we see an integration of west into east and vise versa, we see Asian woman under the influence of the west resort to eating disorders to quell the dissatisfaction they have for their bodies. Statistics now show that Australian woman are less hassled about weight than Asian woman are. Being more removed from American culture and holding fast on their own ideals of beauty has sheltered Australia from negative influences.

Because of cross culture and the sharing of ideals on a global level the negative perception of fat seems to be spreading. Let’s not forget the cultures who appreciate and even glorify fat. From sumo wrestlers to deities like Buddha, fat has played an important part of the world’s cultural heritage. “Where there are people, there will fat be.”