The belief that big is beautiful is causing a self-inflicted obesity crisis in a West African country and putting the lives of women at risk.

In Mauritania, women are encouraged to gain as much weight as possible from childhood in order to be considered attractive.

Having a fat wife is desirable and is a sign of wealth and prestige in the country where food is in short supply.

In their quest to find a husband, many of the women are being pushed to dangerous lengths to gain weight from being force fed to taking pills that are not fit for human consumption.

US journalist Thomas Morton was sent to Mauritania to investigate the problem for the HBO documentary series, Vice.

He found that girls are fattened up from the age of eight by their families in a practice referred to as "gavage" - a French word that means force feeding and is used to describe the fattening of geese to make foie gras.

Once they reach a marriageable age, girls are sent to "fat camps" in the desert where they are fed 15,000 calories a day.

Daily Mail