SIZE ZERO

“Mirror mirror on the wall, tell me who is the slimmest?” That is what a modern girl asks her mirror. Yes, thin is in, at least for the people with money. The trend fortunately has not caught up with the less fortunate ones. If you ask your maid they will still say, just like your mom, that thin makes you look sick. But that is not how most teenagers think. It is size zero that makes them look sexy, just like their fashion icons. There are many successful models whose body fat is much below the healthy 22-26%. The craze of size zero made models Luisel Ramos and Ana Carolina Reston starve themselves to death (heard of Anorexia nervosa?). The craze also got into actresses like Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Keira Knightly, Mischa Barton, Kareena Kapoor and now Katrina Kaif. But girls, really, is it worth it?

When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have!  We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty.  ~Woody Allen

Some times I wonder what made the girls go thin. Is it some kind of a feminist movement just like the times when they started cutting their hairs short, dress up like boys, burnt their bras (I guess that was a myth) and even tried body building? If it is a fashion statement then I think they must be out of their minds! No guy will find a skeleton sexy! If Aryabhatta realized that girls would go fanatical about zero this way, he would have never invented it.

A recent survey has shown that around 95% women living in cities aged between 18 and 64 were unhappy with their looks. Yes, that is what drives the billion dollar industry of fashion, cosmetics and fitness. If suddenly all women found themselves beautiful the entire economy would collapse and the world would go into another phase of recession. This is what the fashion industry is trying to take advantage of and creating a craze for size-zero. But the reality is that a crash diet not only makes you look ugly, it also makes you sick.

Being obese might not be good for your health, but being thin is even worse. Studies have shown that a thin less active person is twice as likely to die as a fat active person. It is somewhere between size zero and shape zero that one would like to be. That little extra bit of fat does not hurt. Think of it this way…there would be more of you to love! So, love your extra self and be happy.