"After being force-fed as a child, M'haimid now won't touch milk or millet, staples that were pumped into her every two hours, even when she kept vomiting. While she talks proudly about the 22 lbs. she has lost in the past month, she knows that at 264 lbs., she cannot rest. "My husband tells me not to tire myself out with this weight loss. These Mauritanian men, they still love fat women. But my health is more important," she says. Mariam Aicha, a former mayor of Nouakchott, recalls a doctor addressing delegates at a recent conference on health. "He said that, from his professional point of view, it was the thinner the better, but then admitted that as a man, he liked something to hold on to," she says."