How Skinny is Too Skinny?

There has been a battle brewing in the modeling world over the dress sizes of models. It started with Spain banning models with a body mass index less than 18 and there has been an uproar ever since. Both sides have entered the foray– some designing outfits for a terribly overweight woman, others through boycotts, and others by trying to use the legislative route to effect a change in Spain’s policy.

We’ve discussed here about the dangers of being skinny and how that we should look to God and and be happy with what we are blessed with rather than to do something to make us into something unhealthy.

Well, the latest entry into this debate happened November 14, 2006 when model Ana Carolina Reston died of a generalized infection. She was 21 years old and weighed only 88 pounds.

The hospital said the infection that killed the 5-foot-8-inch model was caused by anorexia nervosa, a disorder characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, an aversion to food and severe weight loss.

“Take care for your children because their loss is irreparable,” Reston’s mother, Miriam, told the O Globo newspaper. “Nothing can make the pain go away. No money in the world is worth the life of your child.”

Do we as parents know what effect seeing “perfect people” have on our children– especially our daughters?

Certainly we can control the fashion industry to a certain degree by what we choose to purchase; however, who really buys the things displayed by fashion models?! If you’ve ever seen these things they look (to me at least) as sometime utterly unpractical, sometimes downright ugly, and other times just ridiculous! I don’t think that we’re even anywhere near supporting what fashion models are wearing!

In any case, we need to keep spreading the word about the problems that come with trying to maintain “the perfect body” and start to help our young ladies to be healthy and fit.