It takes effort -- and maybe Anorexia -- to be model-thin
When model Christie Brinkley needs to get skinny, she consumes a liquid diet of fruit and vegetable juices.

Waif-like ice skater Peggy Fleming eats a slice of toast for breakfast and a half-cup of rice for dinner.

Model Elle Macpherson chooses between lunch or dinner, but not both. She also does 500 sit-ups a day.

You want to look like a model or movie star?

Have the body mass index of an 8-year-old.

Models and female movie stars' dubious secrets of fitness and dieting are shared by author and former model Diane Irons in her new book, "The World's Best-Kept Diet Secrets" (Sourcebooks, $14.95).

"The difference is, their looks have become their fortune, so they have pulled every trick in the book to get thin and stay there. Their livelihood depends on it," Irons says.

While Irons' book is fascinating because it dares to share the outrageous measures to which models and actresses will go to stay slim, a more alarming new report comes from Dr. Patricia Owen, professor of psychology at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Just about the time the government was compiling its sobering information about fat Americans and hefty BMIs, Owen and graduate student Erika Lauren compiled 500 models' statistics from the Web sites of modeling agencies and collected measurements of Playboy centerfolds from 1985 to 1997. They calculated the BMIs of both groups.

The result? One-quarter of each group met the American Psychological Association's weight criteria for anorexia nervosa -- a BMI of 17.5 or below. Virtually all the centerfolds were underweight, and so were three-quarters of the models. Centerfolds have gotten increasingly thinner and less curvy over the years.

"If these models are exemplars of beauty, then the measure for women is that to be beautiful, starvation-level thinness is required," Owen says.

BMI figures compiled by the Free Press from Irons' book and celebrity Web sites confirm Owen's research and extend it to actresses.

Actresses Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz and singer Diana Ross all have BMIs under 17.5.

Supermodels Kate Moss, Niki Taylor and Elle Macpherson have BMIs under 17 and exist at "third world starvation BMI criteria," Owen says.

Lisa Dergan, Playboy's Miss July, has a BMI of 18.3, which is underweight and typical of centerfolds, whose BMIs hover at 18.2 in Owen's research (however, Michigan's Karen McDougal, 27, became 1998 Playmate of the Year with a healthy BMI of 19). Very few weight and height statistics are available for heavier actors and actresses.

In light of the new National Institutes of Health report on American obesity, the figures are ironic.

"The models are getting skinnier and skinnier, and we're getting fatter," Owen says.

"And women think, if the models are beautiful, what does that make me?"

Sane, perhaps?

Irons' book reveals that in order to maintain BMIs of 16.5 or 17, models and actresses employ every oddball technique under the sun -- risky juice fasts, garlic and papaya diets, cabbage and grapefruit diets. They also follow simultaneously hilarious and frightening diet secrets that Irons swears work for the beautiful bodies:

• Never eat any anything bigger than your head. "You'll only stretch your stomach out."
• Don't swallow. "Models and other successful bodies are also known for taking a forbidden bite, chewing and spitting it out."
• Make your room freezing at night so you expend calories by shivering to keep warm.
• If you get a craving for chocolate, take a whiff of strong perfume. Put perfume on a hanky and "put it up to your nose when you pass a bakery."
• Suck on a fruit pit for 15 minutes after you're done eating the fruit because "it keeps the flavor in my mouth, and makes me think I'm still enjoying the fruit."

Owens hopes that the new BMI figures will prompt Americans to focus not just on obesity, but on society's obsession with thinness in our sex and beauty symbols: "The new BMIs ...were looking at only the dangers of overweight -- which I think is very one-sided given the health dangers associated with being underweight."

To me, this sort of serves puts things in perspective as far as realizing that achieving the coveted "supermodel body" is not that far out of reach and now I realise that the people whose bodies I idolize are not all that different from my own. I guess it really makes me question my own perception of myself more than anything...

Daria Werbowy
Nationality: Canadian
Ethnicity: Caucasion / Ukranian
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: blue/green
Date of birth: 1983
Place of birth: Toronto, Canada
Height: 5ft 11in
Measurements: 34-24-34
Dress size: ?
Shoe size: 8


Gemma Ward
Nationality: Australian
Ethnicity: Australian
Hair colour: blonde
Eye colour: green
Date of birth: November 3, 1987
Place of birth: Perth, Australia
Height: 5ft 9in
Measurements: 32-24-35
Dress size: 4
Shoe size: 9


Jeisa Chiminazzo
Nationality: Brazilian
Ethnicity: Italian
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: green
Date of birth: April 12, 1985
Place of birth: Rio Grande de Sol
Height: 5ft 9in
Measurements: 36-23-34
Dress size: 4
Shoe size: 7


Kate Moss
Nationality: English
Ethnicity: ?
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: hazel
Date of birth: January 16, ?
Place of birth: Croydon, Surrey
Height: 5ft 7.5in
Measurements: 34-23-35
Dress size: 4
Shoe size: 8


Marina Peres
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Spanish
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: blue
Date of birth: July 29, 1984
Place of birth: Madrid, Spain
Height: 5ft 9in
Measurements: 35.5-23.5-35
Dress size: 6
Shoe size: 8


Bianca Balti
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity: Italian
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: blue
Date of birth: 1984
Place of birth: Lodi, Italy
Height: 5ft 9.5in
Measurements: 31.5-23-34
Dress size: ?
Shoe size: 8


Hana Soukupova
Nationality: Czech
Ethnicity: Czech
Hair colour: blonde
Eye colour: blue
Date of birth: December 18, 1985
Place of birth: Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Height: 5ft 11.5in
Measurements: 32-23.5-34
Dress size: 4
Shoe size: 10

Heidi Klum
Nationality: German
Ethnicity: ?
Hair colour: brown
Eye colour: hazel
Date of birth: June 1, 1973
Place of birth: Bergisch Gladbach
Height: 5ft 9.5in
Measurements: 34-24-35
Dress size: 6-8
Shoe size: 12

Paris Hilton
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: ?
Hair colour: blonde
Eye colour: blue
Date of birth: February 17, 1981
Place of birth: South Hampton
Height: 5ft 8in
Measurements: 34-25-35
Dress size: 4
Shoe size: 11

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How long can a person survive without food?
The duration of survival without food is greatly influenced by factors such as body weight, genetic variation, other health considerations and, most importantly, the presence or absence of dehydration.

For total starvation in healthy individuals receiving adequate hydration, reliable data on survival are hard to obtain. At the age of 74 and already slight of build, Mahatma Gandhi, the famous nonviolent campaigner for India's independence, survived 21 days of total starvation while only allowing himself sips of water. In a 1997 article in the British Medical Journal, Michael Peel, senior medical examiner at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, cites well-documented studies reporting survivals of other hunger strikers for 28, 36, 38 and 40 days. Most other reports of long-term survival of total starvation, however, have been poorly substantiated. [Editor's Note: Reports of the 1981 hunger strike by political prisoners against the British presence in Northeast Ireland indicate that 10 individuals died after periods of between 46 and 73 days without food.]

Unlike total starvation, near-total starvation with continued hydration has occurred frequently, both in history and in patients under medical supervision. Survival for many months to years is common in concentration camps and during famines, but the unknown caloric intake during these times makes it impossible to predict survival. What is evident is that the body can moderate metabolism to conserve energy and that individual survival varies markedly. The body's ability to alter its metabolism is poorly understood, but it occurs at least in part through changes in thyroid function. This may help explain the evolutionary persistence of genes causing diabetes, which in the past could have allowed individuals to survive periods of starvation by enabling more economical use of energy.

Medical practitioners encounter cases of near-total starvation in patients suffering from, among other conditions, anorexia nervosa and end-stage malignancies, as well as in those following so-called starvation diets. In anorexia, death from organ failure or myocardial infarction is fairly common (up to 20 percent of cases end this way) and tends to happen when body weight has fallen to between 60 and 80 pounds (although it can occur at any time). This weight typically corresponds to a body mass index (BMI) approximately half of normal, or about 12 to 12.5. (Normal BMI is 18.5-24.9, and most fashion models have a BMI of around 17.) Unless other causes intervene, a patient with end-stage cancer often dies after losing 35 to 45 percent of his body weight. Markedly obese patients on near-starvation diets, such as those employing nutritional supplements and consuming less than 400 calories a day, may lose much more weight than that--but they start with great excesses of body fat, which can sustain metabolism. The medical community has generally rejected these diets, which were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, because participants were reportedly prone to acute myocardial infarctions.

I recall one particularly relevant experience that illustrates the inherent variability in people's ability to survive on very little food. Called in an emergency to see an out-of-town visitor with a throat abscess one Saturday afternoon, I noted his marked thinness, along with a belt showing twelve extra holes at about one-inch intervals, each showing evidence of use. I asked him about his weight and he told me he was five feet, seven inches tall and normally weighed about 145 pounds, but he thought he had noted "some" recent loss, "maybe" down to about 100 pounds over the prior year. He "wasn't trying" to lose weight, but it didn't bother him because he thought thinner was better. He just "didn't feel like eating much." With clothes on, he weighed just 77 pounds. After he left town for further treatment, I never heard from him again, but he had seemingly lost close to half his body weight without noticing any ill effects.

In contrast to starvation with access to liquids, much more is known about survival without any sustenance (neither food nor hydration), which is a far more important practical consideration in medicine and ethics. This situation comes up frequently in two distinct medical groups--the incompetent terminally ill patients for whom artificial maintenance of life is no longer desired, and the individuals who, although not necessarily terminally ill, no longer want to live and decide to refuse food and hydration to end their lives.

A well-known example of the former is Nancy Cruzan, the subject of the famous 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cruzan versus Director, Missouri Department of Health. Cruzan was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for many years until she died 12 days after artificial sustenance was discontinued. Since that time, many other incidences of discontinuing sustenance in patients in a PVS have been reported and death typically occurs after 10 to 14 days. (If the individual is dehydrated or over-hydrated, the time may range from approximately one to three weeks.) In situations of voluntary refusal of food and hydration, death typically ensues on a similar time frame, although the early use of ice chips or sips of water to reduce thirst may delay this slightly.

Feel free to email me with any requests or questions!

Love,
Kali
email / lovebones

Where Do Food Cravings Come From?
Many people may feel that they have "no control" when it comes to certain foods, or wonder why they seem to crave only certain types of foods and nothing else.
There are many theories of what causes food cravings; overly restricting food choices ("you want what you can't have"), comfort foods and childhood associations, hormonal changes (such as menstruation or pregnancy) and stress may indeed play a role.

Brain chemistry, too, may be connected to our desire for certain foods; carbohydrates, for example, increase the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that has a calming effect on the brain. Even gender differences may influence our cravings, as research shows that men tend to crave salty foods while women tend to crave sweets.

Cravings can also result simply from letting yourself get too hungry before eating. If you ignore your body's hunger signals all day, intense food cravings are a way of getting you to focus on food and provide your body with calories.

What do people tend to crave? Fat. Fat in one of two vehicles; sugar or salt. For men, the #1 food craved is pizza, while for women the #1 food craved is chocolate.
Many people mistakenly believe that they "crave sweets", while what they are more likely craving is the fat that comes in a sweet package. Consider that if you were really craving only sugar, you would be content reaching for a hard candy or a sugar cube, rather than a cookie.

It is thought that the body craves fat as a natural response to "over hunger" because fat is the most calorically dense of all nutrients, weighing in at 9 calories per gram (while protein and carbohydrate have only 4 calories per gram). From nature's standpoint, eating fat is the quickest way to make up for lost calories, so when real hunger kicks in you're much more likely to crave cookies or french fries than carrot sticks.

What is Ketosis?
Ketosis is really a shortening of the term lipolysis/ketosis. Lipolysis simply means that you're burning your fat stores and using them as the source of fuel they were meant to be. The by-products of burning fat are ketones, so ketosis is a secondary process of lipolysis. When your body releases ketones in your urine, it is chemical proof that you.re consuming your own stored fat. And the more ketones you release, the more fat you have dissolved.

If you are restricting the amount of carbohydrates you eat, your body turns to fat as its alternative source of energy. In effect, lipolysis/ketosis has replaced the alternative of burning glucose for energy. Both are perfectly normal processes.

People (and even some ill-informed doctors) often confuse ketosis, which is a perfectly normal metabolic process, with ketoacidosis, which is a life-threatening condition. The latter is the consequence of insulin-deficient subjects having out-of-control blood sugar levels, a condition that can occur as well in alcoholics and people in a state of extreme starvation. Ketosis and ketoacidosis may sound vaguely alike, but the two conditions are virtually polar opposites and can always be distinguished from each other by the fact that the diabetic has been consuming excessive carbohydrates and has high blood sugar, in sharp contrast to the fortunate person who is doing Atkins.

Going in to Ketosis
Induction.
This two-week maximum fat-burning program jump-starts your body into the metabolic state known as ketosis, making it consume its own excess body fat faster than you ever thought possible. This phase is very strict in its limitation of carbohydrates. (Because of its rigor, the Induction phase is not suitable for children under the age of 12, pregnant women or people with severe kidney disease.) You eat no more than 20 grams of carbs a day. Most people lose at least 5 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks during Induction. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, you may safely stay on the Induction phase longer.

• You may eat pure protein (meat, fish and shellfish, poultry, eggs) and pure fats (butter, olive oil, mayonnaise).
• Eat no more than 20 grams of carbohydrates a day in the form of salad and other vegetables, such as asparagus, broccoli and kale.
• Eat absolutely no fruit, bread, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter.
• Eat out as often as you wish. Just be alert to hidden carbs in gravies, sauces and dressings.
• Eat no food not specifically allowed.
• Aspartame may stimulate insulin production; avoid it and foods containing it.
• Check the carb content of all foods you are unsure about with a carbohydrate gram counter.
• Caffeine stimulates the production of insulin, so avoid regular coffee, tea and cola drinks.
• Eat the amount of food that makes you feel satisfied, but not stuffed. If you’re not hungry, eat nothing or have a small protein snack to accompany your supplements.

 
Look at her calves in comparison to the other girls.

I've talked to alot of people about this one... even some anorexic people I know think that this is supposively a good idea, but it kind of makes me sick....

Proposed Israeli law would prevent models from being underweight
One of Israel's top fashion photographers has seen enough skinny bodies, and he's determined to do something about it.

In an age when young women are starving themselves in the name of beauty, Adi Barkan, well-known Israeli fashion photographer and owner of the Barkan Modeling Agency in Tel Aviv, together with Knesset member Inbal Gavrieli, have decided to fight the trend.

They've introduced a bill to the Knesset requiring that models undergo health examinations, and have their BMI (body mass index) checked before entering the modeling profession. It's apparently the first bill of its kind in the world.

Beyond the glamour and glitz of the modeling industry lies a darker side. All around the world, scores of young women longing to be the next top model starve themselves, believing that they need to be unnaturally skinny in order to succeed in this world.

While the American modeling industry is grappling with this problem, Barkan hopes, through his campaign, to stem the rise of profession-related illnesses and deal a blow to the 'skinny' culture that permeates the Israeli fashion world.

"Up until now, anorexia and bulimia have been the modeling world's dirty little secret," Barkan told ISRAEL21c. "We in this industry have perpetuated and even glorified eating disorders by celebrating thinness and packaging malnutrition in such an attractive way, that young women everywhere aspire to have 'the look.' It is time that this industry comes clean about this dangerous problem and shows the world that beauty and high fashion do not equal starvation."

The paradox is that Barkan himself used to strictly follow the 'skinnier the better' school of modeling photography.

"Obviously I'm part of it," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently. "But those were the days when Calvin Klein extended the contract of super-skinny model Kate Moss and everyone was following the so-called heroin-chic style."

The proposed law would require all potential models to submit to a nutritional test with a licensed nutritionist or dietician. Agencies would be forbidden to represent a model without a copy of the test results. Subsequently, the agency would not be allowed to continue representing the model unless she submits to the test every six months. Any agency that does not comply will be fined accordingly and all forms will be monitored by the Health Ministry.

Barkan has been working on this initiative for over two years and has managed to garner the support of many of Israel's top CEOs, persuading them to sign a contract agreeing not to hire models with a BMI of less than 19. Barkan has received commitments from Strauss-Elite, one of Israel's largest food industries; Castro fashion house; Bank Hapoalim; Partner cell phones and others.

He's also contacted dozens of fashion houses in Israel asking them to join him in the anti-anorexia campaign and sign affidavits pledging that they won't use models below a certain weight. The Israeli Health Ministry has given its blessing to the campaign, as have school principals who have asked Barkan to speak to their students to pass on the message that the days of 'thin is beautiful' are over.

According to statistics provided by the Health Ministry, seven percent of all adolescent girls in Israel display signs of an eating disorder. Based on interviews that Barkan has conducted with thousands of young aspiring models and the assistance of a certified nutritionist, he believes that 13.7 percent of these young girls are suffering from an eating disorder.

In advance of the first reading of the bill in the Knesset, a large scale television campaign, produced pro bono by the Tel Aviv-based advertising agency Reuveni Pridan, will be launched. It features a public service commercial focusing on body image and eating disorders.

The commercial will portray four adolescent models in succession - each one thinner than the last. A voice-over introduces each model, stating that none of them is happy with her weight, and that each one wants to be as thin as the next girl. The fourth young woman shown, also thinking she's 'too fat,' is visibly wasting away from anorexia.

Israel's major television channels have each donated over a million dollars in air time to broadcast the commercial beginning in mid-February. The public service slogan is called 'Nothing is Worth This.'

Its goal is to increase awareness among parents and adolescents, demonstrate how to recognize the symptoms and how to help those who have eating disorders. Barkan said that an additional purpose is to raise awareness among young girls that there is a distinction between looking good and being obsessive about one's weight.

Participating in the commercial is Shiran Shaul, an 18-year-old model from Haifa, discovered on the street by Barkan. She supports the bill wholeheartedly.

"I don't mind that I'll have to go to a dietician every six months. If I am eating the way I should be eating, then there shouldn't be any problems," she told ISRAEL21c.

Shaul doesn't suffer from an eating disorder but is participating in the campaign because she believes in showing other girls that they don't have to be anorexic if they want to be a model. Shaul hopes that the campaign will reach beyond the border of Israel.

"I think it will be difficult, but there is potential. With hard work, I think that there is a chance. We need to bring people to the point of realizing that this is the right thing to do."

Unfortunately, the production of the commercial, which was to be filmed last week, had to be postponed due to the hospitalization of one of the participants who is currently being treated for anorexia.

"We need to hold a mirror up to these teenage girls so that they can see the damage they are doing to themselves," said Knesset member Gavrieli. "That mirror starts with this television campaign, but continues with positive body images reflected in magazines, on billboards and on runways.

"The welcome initiative relates to the world of modeling, but we hope it will assist us in reaching all society. The law's aim is to create a new image of beauty - an image that includes beauty and health in one word."

If you guys have any questions or topics you want me to research, either email me or leave a comment in the guestbook!

Love,
Kali
email / lovebones

I suppose this is my introduction.

I'm Kali, I'll be taking this site over. I'm 17 and I live in Texas. I've been starving myself for a couple of years. I've been in the hospital once for IP treatment for 5 fun-filled months and I frequent emergency rooms every once in a while, mostly for heart problems. Isn't ana great girls? I'm pretty sure my body is beyond ruin, but once you pop you just can't stop, right?

Enough about me, this site isn't supposed to be about me... nor do I want it to be. I'm going to start updating this with information as soon as I can. Until then, you can find me at lovebones.

Love you all.