Israel has banned super-skinny models because 2% of the female population has an eating disorder. The new law states that models must have a BMI* of at least 18.5, which is on the low end of “normal,” or a doctor’s note stating they’re not underweight in order to get hired for modeling jobs.
Also, my favourite part:
The legislation also bans use of models who “look underweight,” and creators of ads must disclose whether they used Photoshop or graphic programs to manipulate images to make the models look skinnier.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/israel-skinny-model-ban-law-requires-body-mass-160408015.html
Now if only the US would do the same.
*I don’t believe the BMI is an accurate assessment of health or weight but it’s what everyone everywhere uses to judge these things now
Cutting Out Counting Calories 
Here’s hoping that Britain will chime in too! I’m never going to be Kate Moss (and never wanted to be) and am more a Kate Winslett.
I have a favourite saying that I draw on when I start to become agitated by my weight: Size zero can kiss my curves 🙂
I’d love if the whole world followed suit. It’s scary how skinny these models are. Shouldn’t the deaths that result from their extreme dieting (eating disorders) shock the industry into realizing what’s going on? Also, Kate Winslett is much more attractive than Kate Moss.
Have you heard of HAES (Health At Every Size)? It’s a book/philosophy that promotes the idea of not dieting/working out to force your body to be society’s ideal.
Yes, I’ve heard of it – and have always maintained that health isn’t about being thin. I know some extremely large ladies who are fitter and healthier than I am, for example, because I have chronic health issues to battle through before finding my happy medium again.
Kate Winslett is gorgeous – a “real” woman with a naturally beautiful face. She doesn’t need all that muck on her eyelids to look spectacular, whereas Kate Moss is just a plain, skinny girl under all the slap.
I hadn’t heard of it until recently when my friend recommended it to me and then another friend bought me the ebook version (which I need to read more of). And I hear you on chronic health issues.
You’re 100% correct. Kate Winslett is beautiful and has a natural beauty and grace. Katie Moss is…skinny.
I’ve never been a fan of Kate Moss – skin and bone and cocaine is all she’s made of. That does *not* appeal to me!
I used to be too thin through no fault of my own (superfast metabolism and was once a competitive swimmer) and it took me many years and an epilepsy medication to achieve the curvy figure I have now! Actually the meds took me too far and made me obese, but the weight melted off once I was taken off them.
It’s nice to be a larger dress size with actual cleavage for once 😀
I agree.
I have a love-hate relationship with my body. I wish I could love it more but the anorexia tells me it’s ugly =/
I have EDNOS, so it’s neither anorexia nor bulimia – more a psychological problem with food. I do understand the false illusion of the body being ugly though, because I truly hated mine while I was too skinny and while I was obese. Now I’m so frightened of either losing or gaining too much weight that I’ve developed some truly frightening eating habits 😦
That’s awful =( I hope you’re able to pull through. I’m better than I was but it’s still hard some days, especially when people around me start talking about dieting and going to the gym for several hours every day and how many pounds/inches they’ve lost.
Thanks, I’m lucky that I have a supportive partner (who even loved me at my largest because I was “still the person I fell in love with”, bless his heart) and that I don’t have to spend a lot of time with my Mum. She is permanently on the Atkins Diet (which I personally believe to be very damaging to the entire system) and regularly goes to the gym. She is also recovering from breast cancer and can’t accept that the steroids she is now having to take for life are going to make her gain weight and she won’t be able to shift it.
I’ve never known her NOT to be on a diet, or on some sort of exercise kick. She doesn’t have an eating disorder, but I’m worried about how obsessed she is with weight and calories and scales. She’s 58 years old, has just had a major operation to save her life and is taking medication that is keeping her alive – or at least prolonging her life unless the cancer returns. Really the last thing she needs to be worrying about is dieting, especially when she’s still such a pretty woman.
Having supportive people is SO important! B, my fiance, is real supportive of me but he doesn’t know how to handle it when I simply CAN’T eat because of my ED. My friend who told me about HAES has been really really supportive in ways I wasn’t prepared for and it’s been a blessing, even though it was scary telling her about my disorder.
I have noticed a lot of people are really, really, really obsessed with food, calories, weight, scales, diets, gym memberships. They seem to get stuck in this spiral of zigzagging from one fad workout or diet to another without really having the results they want. There’s this one woman at the Kindred we do stuff with who I think is beautiful but she’s really obsessing about weight/gym stuff for her wedding, to the point she made this really insane bet that’s setting her to the gym for 2 hours 4-6 times week. She’s heavier than what society thinks is acceptable but she’s obviously healthy! She competed in some sort of really grueling race last year and finished it, so she has to be healthy and in good shape to do that!
I hope that your mom realizes how beautiful she is and learns to just enjoy life. Really, it’s too short to be worrying about calories, gym memberships, and the latest diet craze.
That woman sounds so like my Mum that it’s a little scary! I find it quite tragic that women have become obsessed with being thin and yet – if you ask your average man – he will tell you that he likes women with curves!
I’m 5’6″, 123lbs and a size 14 (US 12). I have large boobs and hips and I know that this weight and dress size is perfectly healthy and normal for me. I’m actually a little underweight if anything. I’m at the stage now where I know that, the scales reflect that, my BMI shows that, but my brain wants no part of it. I have days when my stomach is attempting to eat itself because I’m so hungry and it’s agonising, but I’m trying to get my brain up to speed with the rest of my body now.
I’m sure it’s not normal for my Mum to be quite so distressed about the occasional ounce here and there. She’s threatened to start smoking again and even stop eating (“Stopping eating worked for you”). Because I chose to stop eating… sure (no, she really believes that). I just want to smack her sometimes!
I find it sad how obsessed we are, as a society, with weight/dieting too. Your body freaks out when you diet; “you’re not eating enough, you must be starving — better start holding away fat reserves so you don’t die!” Which is why people who diet can’t keep the weight they lose, if any, off once they stop the diet. ‘Cause then it’s, “you’re not starving anymore! You must be so emaciated! We need to put on some weight, yes?” Eating when you feel hungry, stopping when you’re full, and not feeling guilty about how much/what you eat works a lot better. But so many people don’t get that.
Your mom sounds a bit nutters, honestly. Threatening to take up smoking or not eat at all because she gained a few ounces? Jeez! No wonder you can’t spend too much time around her.
*sigh* She has no idea how badly she triggers me. We talk on the phone every Sunday and she always asks if I’m eating any better… before turning it around to be about her. Thanks Mum; I have an eating disorder and so I really need to hear all this!
I’ve never, ever believed in diets. Have you seen the article that Mythineats wrote today about healthy living? She’s one of the few thin people who actually talk sense and don’t think cream cakes are evil!
Really, how hard is “eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full” to some people? Diets don’t work and you can even end up heavier than you were to begin with!
*hug* The cluelessly triggering people are the worst, I think. It’s hard to even be angry at them if they’re just being ignorant and aren’t triggering you to be jackasses. My dad’s a lot like your mom; I think you read the post I wrote about how he was when we saw him last. Does telling her how triggering she is help? Sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn’t.
And I haven’t seen that post. Could you link me? I went to a women-only thing with some people I know and the place we went to had free pie day. It was crazy listening to these women talk about how much they had obsessed and longed for pie all day. Where as I considered it briefly, wondering what type I’d want, and then forgot about pie until I got there. But I also try hard not to limit what I eat because it’s “bad” because that’s similar to what I did when my ED was super terrible and I don’t want to give that mindset a foothold again.
Yes, yes, yes! Diets are terrible! I don’t think I know anyone who’s dieted for weight loss and actually succeeded.
I have a friend who is very large – always has been. She is NOT dieting. Instead, she’s active in the garden, she cycles, she walks her completely loopy Lurcher twice or three times a day she eats sensibly with the help of Weight Watchers and she loves to swim. So even though she isn’t dieting and is still eating pretty much whatever she likes, the pounds are coming off – and because she’s so active she’s superfit; why do people always think large people can’t be fit?
There’s no point telling Mum that she triggers me; she’d honestly not understand and would think I was nit-picking for the hell of it or something. We’ve fallen out over a lot less in the past.
Here’s the link: http://mythineats.com/2012/03/21/eating-habits-of-naturally-thin-people/#comments – I’m sure you’ll notice that, as well as making sense, this lady is slender, beautiful and – most importantly – healthy. She has great skin, glossy hair and sparkling eyes, so whatever her approach to food, it’s working!
It really astonishes me that people think that non-skinny people can’t be healthy and fit. Most non-skinny people I know are more active than I am, so they’re more healthy and fit. My friend who introduced me to HAES, K, is what many people would consider “really overweight” or whatever but she’s so healthy and fit, and most importantly, HAPPY.
That article you posted is really HAES-like! Cool beans. I might link to it. You might like my friend’s, J, post: http://normalisok.blogspot.com/2012/03/weighty-issues.html I plan on putting up here soon too but you get a sneak peak 😉
Yeah, talking to my dad about triggers doesn’t help either. But I finally put my foot down and told him he’s not ALLOWED to make comments about my body, even if he thinks they’ll be helpful. Maybe you should make the topic of food/weight off limits with your mom?
Oooh, a sneak peek – thank you so much! Yes, this lady really is very sensible over food, isn’t she? And she’s not what you’d call skinny, just slender.
I used to completely obsess over my round stomach and it took my sister many years to ram it into my head that I’ve carried an entire human body inside my own and that the only way for me to have a flat stomach is to stare myself. Besides, it doesn’t poke my clothes out of shape when I wear them, and nobody ever believes that I’m a Mum just from looking at me, so I’m cool with it now!
I’m not sure how to deal with my Mum. She’s still very frightened from the cancer, the treatment and the hair loss (I wouldn’t wish all of that distress on my worst enemy) and so she’s paranoid about everything. Lately I’ve been fielding her “fat” complaints by reminding her that she is on life-saving medication and being a little plump around the middle is rather a lot better than being dead. I really don’t know why I bother though, as my stepfather gets more of the same!
I’m now going to read your friend’s article – and will tell them you sent me 🙂
She’s definitely more sensible about food than most people are! I’d eat salads all the time if I could ’cause I love greens but B’s not fond of them and I realize I need more to my diet than spinach salads lol. My biggest struggle is finding tasty, affordable food that both B and I like… Which is mostly pasta dishes. Though he’s been more willing to try new foods lately.
Oh, you should hear me obsessing about my stomach. “Oh, it hangs out evenly to my [small] boobs! I’m so fat!” Brad’s gotten to the point he just sighs, waits for me to finish my verbal attack of myself and then he tells me why I’m wrong: “your breasts are small, so it’d be HARD for your stomach not to be even with it if you weigh a good amount! You look fine!” And, yes, your sister is right. You’ve had a child, that’ll make your stomach look different and surgery is the only thing that’d change that, which isn’t worth it. You’re beautiful how you are!
Man, that is hard. I’m not sure what further advice to give. I hope she gets healthy and you can talk to her about it, though, ’cause that’s not a healthy mental place for anyone to be and her triggering you isn’t good for you, obviously.
J’s a great person. I think you’d like her blog, she posts a lot of interesting things.
I used to have very small boobs too, but they’re a lot bigger now and I’m happier with my body overall. Certainly the added cleavage has given me a more truthful view of my stomach (what stomach?) and has generally boosted my confidence. A woman’s belly is naturally rounded anyway because of all the reproductive stuff she has to pack in there (men have it so easy!) and I just keep telling myself that on bad days.
I adore salads too – especially with home-made viniagrette! I recently made up a batch of sweet chilli courgettes (I’m certain that I posted the recipe, but if I didn’t I shall) which can be used cooked or in their raw pickled state. I don’t know if I love the flavour (sweet with a fiery kick) or the smell more, but I definitely love their versatility and am looking forward to my first summer salad with them as a dressing. I am also not adverse to pasta, fish, chicken or anything else really, when my brain allows me to put food in my mouth. I salivate over so many different cooking shows on a daily basis that it’s untrue, and I’m always buying recipe books or searching the net for something interesting to print.
As I said; I have a weird relationship with food. I love it to the point of near-obsession, and yet at the same time I have such a strong aversion to it that it’s ridiculous.
I think Mum is just in a very scary place at the moment. She’s going to recovery courses and learning about diet and things, so hopefully she’ll settle down eventually 🙂
I’m glad it makes you feel better to have bigger ones. I obsess about how big mine are (I liked them better when they were smaller). It creates some gender issues, really. And I don’t wear bras so larger makes it more awkward in public. But I think I’m holding steady around a US B cup, however I’m not sure. My mom had really big boobs and I’m afraid of getting them, too, because they caused her so much pain (she had severe back pain from them). And, yeah, women’s stomachs have the roundness that guys’ don’t have. Lucky bastards and their internal plumbing that’s more external.
We’re going to try growing lettuce again this year! I hope it actually works. I was so disappointed in what happened to our garden last year, with the blackfly, because I had so looked forward to organic lettuce (three types!), spinach, and carrot salads from our container garden. Also, I’ve never had courgettes that I know of but I’m willing to try most foods once unless I know I’m allergic to them! Damn. Now I want a salad lol.
Your relationship with food is like mine, really. I love and hate it at the same time. Yay eating disorders! Not.
Fingers crossed for your mom’s recovery. Maybe this will teach her that she should enjoy life and stop obsessing.
What a coincidence – a friend on a different blogging site was asking my advice on blackfly this morning, because her container garden suffered last year. I told her that all you can really do is destroy the plants, sterilise the pots and use new soil.
We have a vegetable patch here, and our main predators to the green stuff seem to be slugs and Cabbage White caterpillers. Aphids can be blasted off a plant with a hosepipe and the ladybirds take care of them after that. It’s also by encouraging spiders to live in the garden and greenhouse that I recovered (more or less) from lifelong arachnaphobia! I’ve also decided to expand my flower borders in order to grow veg for my pickling/preserving; I currently have some red cabbage and romanesco cauliflower seedlings on the go with more veg to come!
Since we’re talking about salads, Dom is sat here eating a ham and cucumber sandwich at me. THE SMELL IS DRIVING ME NUTS!! Seriously, it’s divine.
You would call a courgette a zucchini; I love how many things you can use them for, and they always go in my piccalilli. Crunchy veggie goodness is a complete must for me in any meal.
Yay eating disorders indeed, right? At least we can support each other 🙂
That was me lol. This is my weight/ED/body image blog ’cause a lot of my LJ friends have body issues and I don’t like having to LJ-cut or censor myself due to it. I also maintain some anonymity here since it’s all public.
Your garden sounds amazing.
That sandwich sounds noms. Tell Dom to share! lol
Oooh! I LOVE those things! Zucchini bread is divine! I like to slice them and dunk them in dressing, too, they make good snacks like that though B turns his nose up at them. Cucumber’s good like that as well. My relative (I’m not sure what she’d be to me — her husband is distantly related to me through my mom’s dad) gave me an acorn squash last summer and I saved the seeds so I hope to be able to grow that.
Having a good support system is a must! I really appreciate having friends who understand, even if it means they suffer with me.
OMG!!! The moment I saw your entry here about your Dad I thought to myself “Hey, an LJ friend recently said something similar” – I have a strong suspicion that we met here before we met on LJ!
I have only a small number of people who know about this blog – I filter all WordPress-related entries on LJ, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention me by name (I know that sounds weird but I attract trolls for some reason – I also have the same “hiding in plain sight” thing going on as you do).
A couple of years ago we were very successful in growing courgettes, but we went to see my son one weekend and returned to find that one had gone rather bonkers and turned into a marrow! I can’t remember what we did with it but I know it was tasty.
I grow French Marigolds every year as sacrificial plants – slugs will go for them before they go for anything else. I harvest so many thousands (and I do mean thousands) of the seeds every year that I don’t mind a few dying for my salady goodness, just as long as a few get to grow because their pettles are like a lion’s mane and are not always just one colour – they’re so pretty!
I certainly don’t mind being a part of your support system; we’re in this together and we can beat it!
It is entirely possible that we met here first but I think we met through a mutual friend on LJ… Though I can’t remember who. And I totally get not using names here. I use first letters of names, which repeats a lot, when referring to people. Like, my fiance is B. I will just call you Tribble 😀
That sounds so delicious! I want courgettes now. They’re real good breaded and fried. I wonder if I can get B to go for a plant or two. When I was a kid, we had a neighbour right next door who grew a large vegetable garden every year and she was constantly giving us courgettes, carrots, and other noms. My mom once grew corn in the flowerbeds, much to the amusement of the neighbours.
I have heard that marigolds are great for repelling bugs. My mom used to grow a row of them just to do that, but maybe she was sacrificing them like you do lol. I admittedly know nothing about gardening but I’m trying to learn and adapt it to containers.
I don’t mind being part of yours, either. I think the bigger the support system, the better!
The mutual friend I remember yes… was it Sam, or someone else from the gardening community? I certainly had no suspicion that this was you until you mentioned the blackfly!
I always have chives in my borders as a bug repellant (so mostly around my roses) and plant sunflowers for the bees and butterflies. Marigolds repel some bugs, but encourage others that would otherwise nom your veg! I always make sure that the veg patch has a good number and I grow them continuously throughout the season.
Every year we grow tomatoes, mange tout, radishes, beetroot, garlic and various other things. This year I have mange tout with my climbing rose and my honeysuckle, and am planning to grow cauliflower, onions, parsnips and the aforementioned red cabbage and romanesco cauliflower – and of course the courgettes!
And let’s not forget the redcurrant bushes I bought, as I’d like to make redcurrant jelly. They are already sprouting stacks of leaves and I might end up with more redcurrants than I bargained for!
I just checked, it was Den 🙂 And I guess it’s good that even people who read my personal blog won’t recognize me unless they know me! Means maybe family members I don’t want knowing it’s me won’t know either.
I wonder how the border system or decoy plants would work with a container garden. It could be interesting to try. We do have some chive seeds (though we can’t eat them as B’s allergic to them and onions). Man, this talk of gardening has me excited! If we knew the good weather was going to hold, we’d plant our garden this weekend but we’re afraid it’ll turn nasty again in April like it did last year. Believe you me, it’s not fun trying to keep your whole crop alive in your barely-gets-sunlight living room.
I want pictures of your garden! It sounds so lovely!
I *knew* it was someone from the gardening community that we met through – and I absolutely adore Den, she’s so lovely!
We really must get some pictures now that everything is blooming – or beginning to bud. All of my roses are making a healthy comeback, the redcurrant bushes that I bought from eBay are thriving (definitely not a waste of money there, as redcurrant jelly isn’t cheap and these bushes will give me free redcurrants forever) and my bleeding hearts are showing themselves nicely. One died last year because of the awful weather (I think it drowned) but the others are doing nicely – even the one that D planted upside down one year.
I’ve just put my propagator in the greenhouse so that the seedlings can get more light; they’re getting leggy and it’s such a glorious day here. If the weather holds I’ll be sowing more things (including Marigolds) over the rest of the week.
Marigolds don’t take up a great deal of space. If you were to put a few around the “main event” in a container I think they would be fine – just as long as you’re constantly growing more to replace the ones that the slugs go for!
Did you know who I was when you started following me? It’s a wonderful coincidence that we found each other here too, so I’m curious 🙂
I did know. You posted a link to your LJ on the filter I think? I’m not sure how I ended up there, maybe I requested, honestly I’m not sure. But that’s how I found this one. And, yes, Den is amazing. I found her on a crocheting community, she posted pretty pineapple blankets.
I have serious garden envy right now. You have no idea. Sounds so amazing!
Put them in the same container as the plant I’m trying to protect or separate containers? B and I have decided to just toss the containers we used last year ’cause we have two giant trash bags full of other containers ready to be washed out, cut down, and have drainage holes put in.
Goodness, I wish you’d said something – I’ve been responding to you on my WP as though you were almost a stranger, and all this time you were a friend from elsewhere 🙂
Yes, Den is awesome. She and I have so many hobbies and fandoms in common and she makes me laugh until I cry. I wish I could meet her someday!
Marigolds don’t have a particularly big root system and are completely non-invasive. a few in your veg pots will do no harm at all 🙂
I respond to people weirdly on here so I didn’t really think much of it lol. And, yes, Den is pure awesome. I hope to meet her one day too.
Oooh! That is awesome! B likes the idea too.
The Marigold idea? Seriously, they create so many seeds that it really doesn’t matter if a few get nommed and they’re a small, pretty plant. They’ve saved many a vegetable and young seedling in our garden!
When the flowers die off in the autumn you’ll find seed quills in the pods that are left behind. I have so many that I can gift them to dozens of friends throughout the year as well as plant them. The same with Sunflower seeds, which I am always being asked for! I specifically plant Earthwalker Sunflowers, as they attract birds and butterflies and are a stunning shade of sunset red. They’re also a dwarf variety so they don’t take up too much space 🙂
I’ll definitely give it a shot. I have pansies to grow too. We have a lot to grow. Definitely worth trying! We don’t really have to worry about slugs (third floor apartment) but other bugs eating them instead of the plants we’re trying to grow for food would be awesome.
Oooh, I long to grow sunflowers! I love them 🙂 They’re so pretty. But we have to optimize space since we just have the little balcony to grow on.