Men prefer women of average weight and build rather than stick thin supermodels, according to new research by scientists at St Andrews University.
The study suggests that more curvy Hollywood actresses like Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lopez are considered more attractive and healthy-looking than size-zero contemporaries such as Paris Hilton or Nicole Ritchie.
Researchers say the findings send a strong message to young women who believe that you need to be underweight to be considered attractive.
The St Andrews experts surveyed a group of male students and asked them to rate photographs of 84 female students for attractiveness and health. They found that young men rated girls in the "normal" weight range as the most attractive.
Lead researcher Vinet Coetzee said: "We often remark on how healthy or unhealthy someone looks, but it can be very difficult to say precisely how we know this. Scientists have been trying to answer this question for decades, and have made many breakthroughs in our understanding of health and attractiveness, but until now they have tended to overlook the influence of weight."
"We studied a group of young healthy students. However, amongst this group, those students that were rated as more overweight reported more frequent and longer lasting cold and flu bouts, used antibiotics more frequently and had higher blood pressure than the students that were considered normal weight.
"Even at this young age, their health was already suffering because they were overweight, and what is more, other people can spot this in their face."
Professor David Perrett, who co-authored the study, added: "A take home message for young people is that maintaining a normal weight benefits current health and will improve good looks.
"In our study, people in the normal weight range were judged healthier and more attractive than under or overweight individuals.
"This sends a strong message to all the girls out there who believe you have to be underweight to be attractive. The people making judgments in our study were all between the ages of 18 and 26 and they did not rate underweight girls most attractive. They preferred normal weight girls."
The findings have been published in the scientific journal Perception.
