Mexican-American women have unique ideas about what it means to be healthy and beautiful compared to mainstream American women.
They are more confident in their curves and those who diet do it more to avoid illness than to look good in their clothing, a local study revealed and area residents confirmed.
Nurse Practitioner Yvette Petti, who has worked with Latinas in Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Lansing and Toledo, conducted a pilot study of Mexican immigrants between 2002 and 2003 and a doctoral thesis on first-generation, Mexican-American women between 2004 and 2007.
Earlier this year, she completed her analysis of body image and body attitudes among 35 U.S.-born Mexican-American women and found that further study is needed to explain why they felt that bigger is sometimes better.
An article explaining the results of the study, co-authored by Petti and Julia Muennich Cowell of Rush University, is pending publication in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. READ FULL STORY
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