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Witness History: Weight Watchers

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16/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Weight Watchers

How a New York housewife started a worldwide weight loss business in May 1963.

New York housewife, Jean Nidetch, began by simply talking to her friends about how to lose weight.  But soon she had started a weight-loss franchise.

New York housewife, Jean Nidetch, started by simply talking to her friends about how to lose weight.  They weighed each other and swapped dietary advice, but soon Weight Watchers had turned into a franchise.  Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Lauren Cohen who joined in the 1960s and eventually became a 'trainer' leading her own Weight Watchers group.

Photo: Jean Nidetch in 1969. Credit Alamy.

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