Food & Fashion

Take a good look at this fashion model. No really - take a long look and form an opinion of her physique.

Got it?

OK, I googled "skinny model" and this was the first image I found that I felt I could post where the line between fashion and slimness was well made on both sides of the equation. The photos I rejected screamed concentration camp, cancer or starvation. Don't look if your dreams are easily influenced into nightmares.

Sure we all know these celery consuming anorexics are poisoning the psyches of children and young adults. But what can we do about it. Well the Israel parliament is trying something, which troubles my feelings about life, liberty and free will but I wonder...

A new law passed by Israel lawmakers on Monday requires that male and female models in Israel must have a body mass index (or BMI, a measure of weight proportionate to height) of no less than 18.5—a standard used by the World Health Organization before they can be hired for a modeling job. A six-foot-tall model, for example, must weigh no less than 136.5 pounds.

Lawmakers are hoping the measure encourages a healthier body image among teens and fights the spread of eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. 

"Beautiful is not underweight," Rachel Adato, one of the lawmakers who voted for the bill. "Beautiful should not be anorexic."

Adi Barkan, a top modeling agent in Israel who helped Adato craft the law, described underweight models favored by the fashion industry a bit more bluntly.

"They look like dead girls," Barkan told the AP.

So how do we feel about the government regulating body mass when tied to employment? Remember weight restrictions for flight attendants.