Brazilians fight new form of starvation: anorexia

THE struggle for food has long been a drama for impoverished Brazilians. But these days the nation is transfixed by another sort of starvation: anorexia among the successful and well off.

The deaths of four young women from anorexia recently have been splashed across the front pages of newspapers nationwide.

The most recent victim was Beatriz Cristina Ferraz Lopes Bastos, a 23-year-old teacher who died on Sunday at a hospital in Jau, 200 miles north-east of Sao Paulo. Local media reports said she was 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed just 77 pounds.