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GLAMOROUS images of thin models are not solely responsible for anorexia. The
disease exists even in rural Africa where girls have not been exposed to Western
media, according to research presented this week at the Royal College of
Psychiatrists’ annual meeting in Edinburgh. Alan Carson of the University of
Edinburgh and his colleague David Bennett interviewed 668 female secondary
school students in Ghana. They found that six of them scored highly in a test of
eating attitudes designed to identify anorexia. The researchers say the girls
linked their self-imposed starvation to religious fasting or feelings of self-control.