In fact, over 20,000 years ago, an obese woman was a fertility icon or mother goddess. In the Bible, there are many stories that have food imagery and that famine was more deadly to humans, especially when describing the Garden of Eden. This gave rise to the idea that heaven is a place where food is abundant. In the arts, curvy women were more favored. During the Renaissance, Michelangelo created curvy women in the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican. At that time, curvy women were associated with wealth, power and influence. Even in literature, curvy women were cheerful, adorable, and good-natured, as in Cervantes' Sancho Panza and Shakespeare's Falstaff. These women contrast with the introverted, greedy and distressing personalities of thinner women, such as in Cervantes' Don Quixote and Shakespeare's Hamlet. During the 18th century, attitudes towards obesity began to change, and again in the 19th century. Obesity began to be devalued at the end of the 20th century (Eknoyan,