There’s been a hot debate about size zero models and underweight models for some months now. A topic that heated up again with London’s fashion week kicking off earlier this month, as reported in London’s Daily Mail.
Lily Cole is one of the size zero models today. Picture from London’s Daily Mail.
While I think this debate has done good, I think it’s important for people not to simply jump onto the band wagon with this thought altogether and swing too far out with the pendulum on this debate, without considering the other perspective – those who are genetically thin and underweight, with BMI lower than 18.5.
I say this because I myself speak from a 1.65m frame with a 17 BMI, which is considered way underweight. A search on the internet for “Kate Moss + BMI” will render everything from 15 BMI to 17 BMI. Point is, she is still underweight. But since my BMI is 17, would that not put me in that range and thus under scrutiny and criticism since I do now and again, appear in the media and that would mean that I’m a poor / negative role model for young teenage girls?
Well, I’ve actually put on weight since I was 16 where I was 1.65m and weighed 41 kg. An improvement I would say.
And looking at things from my point of view, I would say this entire debate is unfair to persons such as myself. It lands us in hot water for something that is genetic and it gives society something easy to blame, rather than do that research and publish more on genetic thinness. Now that would cost some institutions a lot of time and money wouldn’t it? So it’s much easier to point to a few prominent research already done and a few models who have died on the catwalks and say – out with size zero, out with being thin!
Besides which, research that goes against the grain most often escape funding. I can imagine the answer and gaffaws from the board of directors of some research institute if I said I had a proposal to prove that being thin is not necessarily unhealthy when every other research points in the opposite direction.
But do I have any health problems? Not thus far. Cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels were healthy at my last annual checkup.
So what’s missing in this debate? I think the word local.
Continue reading “Size zero and BMI below 18.5”
