No Thinspiration

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Supermodel Gisele Bundchen says weak families are to blame for anorexia – not the fashion industry that has been widely criticized for promoting waifish silhouettes.

“I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry,” Bundchen said in the Friday edition of O Globo newspaper.

Bundchen, 26, was visiting her native Brazil this week for the Fashion Rio show, which has banned models who are under the age of 16 and has required proof of their good health after the death of a Brazilian model from complications due to starvation last year.

In September, Spain barred models below a certain weight from Madrid fashion shows while the Italian government and its fashion chiefs signed a pact to keep sickly thin girls off the catwalk.
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Poured into a gold swimsuit, Make Me A Supermodel winner Jen Hunter looks as if this outfit was custom-made for her.

But the one-piece triggered a furious row about stick-thin models when her rival finalist Marianne Berglund appeared painfully underweight in the same attire.

Appearing here for the first time in the outfit which sparked the debate about size zero models, Miss Hunter - who was criticised on the show for being too fat - said: “This is what a real woman should look like.

“I am all curves and flesh, not skin and bone. Boys, who would you rather snuggle up to?”

Looking as different as chalk and cheese, the swimwear clings to Miss Hunter’s voluptuous curves and reveals acres of cleavage while on clinically underweight Miss Berglund, it shows her protruding hips and ribs and appears to hang off her.

Barmaid Miss Hunter, 24 - who weighs 11 stone and is a healthy size 12 - was reduced to tears when she was castigated on the reality TV show for not taking a food and exercise regime seriously.

Judge Tandy Anderson, managing director of Select Model Management, criticised her for having “stocky” legs while supermodel Rachel Hunter, a fellow panellist, reprimanded her for saying she wanted to prove larger women could be successful models.

Swedish blonde Miss Berglund, 18, who made it to the final with her, was meanwhile praised for having a “sensational” body for modelling despite having a body mass index of 16.1.

It fell well below the minimum BMI of 18 for models taking part in Madrid Fashion Week in September, set after catwalk model Luisel Ramos dropped dead from self-starvation.

But mother-of-one Miss Hunter triumphed when viewers voted her to the top female slot in the contest - and claimed she owed her success to her favourite dish of hotpot and chips.
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Cameron Diaz has become the latest star to say she is worried about the influence of ultra-skinny celebrities.

Her comments echo those of Billie Piper and Kate Winslet, who both criticised the phenomenon last week.

The Hollywood actress, 34, tells ITV1 show Parkinson: “I think it’s terrifying. It’s tragic and sad.

“I think that it’s a sickness, something that’s going on in someone’s head where their perspective is off.

“We get ideals from images that we see and there certainly should be more responsibility put on those people who are putting those images out into the world.

“Let’s be a little bit more responsible to what’s realistic.”

She adds: “I’m a skinny girl, so all my life all I have ever wanted to be is curvaceous and voluptuous, have everything falling out everywhere.

“Some people…their perception and their perspective is completely askew.”

Last week, former Doctor Who star Piper said Victoria Beckham should not be a teenage role model because of her tiny frame.

The star, who suffered from anorexia, said she worried that younger people were looking up to skinny stars.

Former singer Piper, 24, said: “I think the whole size-zero debate is disgusting.

“Some models you see are tiny because that’s the way they were born, but then they’ll get the attention and that will start feeding a fire.
“My sister, who is 13, looks amazing but she’s already worried about her figure.
“She loves Posh and I say: ‘Come on Ellie. She’s tiny. What’s wrong with Shakira? She’s sexy, curvy,’ but she has no interest.”

Winslet also joined the debate, describing the trend as “unbelievably disturbing“.

The 31-year-old said she refused to have any magazines showing skinny stars in her house because of the damaging effect it could have on her six-year-old daughter, Mia.

“It’s only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it and it frightens the life out of me,” she said.

Nicole Richie and Kate Bosworth are among the celebrities whose shrinking figures have been the subject of debate.

The controversy over underweight models has been raging since the death last month of Ana Carolina Reston, 21, a Brazilian model who suffered from anorexia (some pics here).

In August, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, 22, died of heart failure after not eating for several days.

When you’re hungry, take a nap. Shower, drink tea, numb your taste buds with teething gel, give yourself a manicure. Do anything but eat. These are some of the tips that “pro-ana,” or pro-anorexia Web sites offer to those who choose to restrict their eating.

These Web sites gained popularity the last few years as a kind of support group and community for those who have accepted anorexia as a lifestyle rather than a disorder. They have also become a source of national concern as those with eating disorders reinforce self-destructive habits and ideals through the Web sites.

Before this year, there was no actual study on the effects of viewing the Web sites, but two MU researchers, Anna Bardone-Cone and Kamila Cass, have published a pilot study in “European Eating Disorders Review.” Their larger study about the topic is being considered for publication in an eating disorder journal.

There is a format that comes with a pro-ana, mia (bulimia) or pro-ED (eating disorder) Web site. There’s the “thinspiration” section filled with pictures of rail-thin runway models and celebrities, sometimes accompanied with their measurements, “to set better goals for yourself and to keep on track,” as displayed on “Shophisticated,” a pro-ana Web site. There’s also the “reverse trigger” section, composed of pictures of morbidly obese people, greasy food and “fat” celebrities.
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Young sufferers of anorexia and bulimia who try to hide their eating problems from their parents and doctors are turning to a growing number of internet chat rooms dedicated to perpetuating their illness.

A pilot study released this week of US eating disorder patients aged between 10 and 22 showed that up to a third learn new weight loss or purging methods from websites that promote eating disorders by enabling users to share tips, such as what drugs induce vomiting and what internet sites sell them.

But the study - published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics - found that eating disorder sufferers were also learning new high-risk ways to lose weight from each other on websites aimed at helping them recover.

The survey by researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford showed a third of patients also visited pro-recovery sites and half of them learnt new weight loss and purging methods.

“Parents and physicians need to realise that the internet is essentially an unmonitored media forum,” said Rebecka Peebles, Packard Children’s adolescent medicine and eating disorder specialist and an author of the study.
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After Cibeles (spanish catwalk) rejected some extra skinny models, anorexic girls still can work in some other countries without problems.

One of the world’s most famous fashion designers yesterday became the first to speak out against the use of stick-thin models.

Giorgio Armani urged the fashion industry not to use ’size zero’ models in an effort to curb the rise in eating disorders among young women.

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