Latinas Love Their Curves, Study Says

It is official: Latinas love their curves.

At least that’s what a study released this week is saying about plus-sized Hispanic women they surveyed – they are overweight but don’t call them fat. They are perfectly normal, thank you very much.

“We are seeing Hispanic and African American women are more likely to consider their weight normal when they are overweight,” said one of the study’s authors, Abbey B. Berenson, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Though the study didn’t ask why they felt that way, she speculated it could have been because of cultural reasons.

“It’s what is acceptable in individual surroundings,” said Berenson, who co-wrote the study with UTMB assistant professor Mahbubur Rahman. The survey found one in four overweight Hispanic women perceived their weight as “normal”, while only 15 percent of white respondents did. That means, the study says, those women are less likely to lose weight and “more vulnerable to cardiovascular disease risk factors and other obesity related diseases.” READ MORE