The Starvation Syndrome On The Road To Designer Body Salvation By Sanchita Sharma The Hindustan Times August 25, 2002 Modelling can be bone-breaking, discovered former Miss World Yukta Mookhey the hard way. She found that the near-starvation diet she had adopted to look svelte had made her bones brittle (medically termed osteoporosis). Now she's going to town about the vicious fall-out of dieting, de rigueur in the fash frat. About time too, for while the West has moved away from cocaine chic and forced the likes of Calista ‘Ally McBeal' Flockhart to grapple with anorexia nervosa and put on some weight, Indian models continue to flaunt emaciation. Malnutrition could well have been the theme of the Lakmé India Fashion Week, where most models looked starved instead of glamorous. Given their weight, they probably were sustenance-deprived. Despite her 5' 10'' _frame_, Vidisha Pawate weighed 50 kilos, Diandra Soares stood 5' 9'' and weighed 49 kilos; while Sushma Reddy weighed 50 kilos at 5' 10''. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of all three is 16, a good 10 kilos below the healthy weight. ''Body weight 15-20 per cent below the desired BMI is clinically classified as anorexia nervosa, and these models clearly fall in the category,'' says nutritionist Ishi Khosla, Director, Centre for Dietary Counselling. ''They project an unhealthy body image which can lead to immune disorders, osteoporosis, hormone imbalance, arthritis and infertility,'' she adds. Ironically, the _meta_bolism of people who eat less gets sluggish and tends to conserve energy, making them prone to obesity as soon as they resume a normal diet. ''I've been getting an increasing number of underweight teens who are being diagnosed with amenorrhoea – irregular or scanty periods that may finally stop – and infertility,'' says Madhu Roy, senior consultant, gynaecology, Apollo Hospitals. ''So much has been made about being thin that most people don't know when to stop starving themselves,'' says Shikha Khanna, senior dietician at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. ''BMI is the best way to know how much weight you need to lose, taking care not to go under the 18.5 watermark,'' she adds. After the International Journal of Obesity said that seven out of 10 Playboy centrespread girls were underweight, health bodies in the US went on an information overdrive that made anorexia unfashionable. ''We don't learn from other people's mistakes,'' complains Khosla. Given the malnourished body image our models continue to flaunt, health will continue to be sacrificed for a cosmetic edge, at least for some time. Read the complete news at: http://www.hindustantimes.com News Plus http://www.mantra.com/newsplus Jai Maharaj http://www.mantra.com/jai Om Shanti Panchaang for 18 Vaishakh 5104, Sunday, May 18, 2003: Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Uttarayane Nartana Ritau      Vrishabh Mase Krishna Pakshe Bhanu Vasara Yuktayam Mool-Purvashadh Nakshatr Sadhya Yog      Vishti-Bav Karan Tritiya-Chaturthi Yam Tithau Hindu Holocaust Museum http://www.mantra.com/holocaust Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy http://www.hindu.org http://www.hindunet.org The truth about Islam and Muslims http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal addresses, and live voice telephone number.