Model Diets - The Scariest Fashion Trend

There has always been talk surrounding superficiality and the prevailing “thin is best” view within the fashion industry. A view that has resulted in many cases of eating disorders due to the pressure usually felt by young boys and girls about being the “correct weight” or “correct size” for modelling.

The outcome? Model ‘diets’!!

Many models feel they have to be rail thin to survive in the fashion industry but this could have very dangerous consequences.

Many models such as former top model Cleo Glyde, now Marie Claire's style director, have confessed to making drastic changes to their eating habits just to fit into a designer's piece. One of the most famous 'diets' yet is known as The 11-Grape Diet, which so happens to be the same very 'diet' that Glyde once took. "How else was I going to fit into my assigned skin-tight showstopper? I was a model on a mission," said Glyde in the controversial article called My 11-Grape Diet: A Model Confesses for Marie Claire magazine.

But little did she know, she was about to inevitably collapse in New York's Chelsea Hotel. This is usually the fate of some models who undergo such ridiculously drastic diets. However, the majority usually don't make it to see the next casting call. When 22-year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died of anorexia-related heart failure between costume changes, Spanish authorities decided that models under a certain weight might need medical help, not a job! They declared that 5'9" catwalkers must weigh a minimum of 125 pounds.

Here is an example of a fashion model's 'diet routine' I found online:

"21 Year old female model (day 4)

10:00 A.M. Home
One bottle Kombucha tea. It’s a fermented Chinese tea. Supposedly it has all of these properties for the immune system, metabolism support, and digestion. One apple.

1:45 P.M. Clinton Street Baking Company
Bowl of lobster bisque. I only stared at the biscuit that came with it.

8:00 Cube 63
One piece scallop (no rice), one spicy scallop roll, one Clinton roll. Again, low-sodium soy sauce. I love sushi. It’s lean protein, it’s good for you. About a liter of water throughout the day."

This is NOT healthy!

A healthy diet contains a variety of basic nutrients which your body needs for energy, to grow and to stay healthy. It's not about eating all “good foods” and avoiding all foods perceived as “bad”. What your body needs is a healthy BALANCE of different foods; otherwise you might be missing out on vital nutrients which you need to live. Carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals and water are the basic nutrients that you need for good health.

Another astonishing 'diet' is the "Lettuce & Water Diet", which is eating only lettuce and at least 10 glasses of water a day... THAT'S IT!! Can you say crazy?!

Unfortunately, in fashion and the beauty industry, the thinner the better. This isn’t only seen throughout the pages of any fashion magazine, but it has also transferred over into how sizes are now being made for clothing. (Banana Republic has size 00.)

In 2004, Israel became the first nation to pass laws requiring modelling agencies to hire only healthy models who have a body mass index – a measure of body fat – of 19 or above. That means that a 5'9" woman would have to weigh at least 129 pounds.

If we can make these things legal, why is it that it is still so hard to get unhealthy ideals out of our minds and from drilling it into the psyches of these young girls!?

We need to make a stand and do something PROACTIVE about this very pressing issue that seems to be getting worse as time goes on.

I alone cannot do it. WE ALL NEED TO BAND TOGETHER!

MAKE A CHANGE!