Model Moss rapped for 'skinny feels good' motto
Posted: 20 November 2009 0052 hrs

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LONDON : British supermodel Kate Moss was accused Thursday of giving the wrong message to anorexics and teenage girls when she gave her backing for a slogan encouraging them not to eat.

Interviewed by fashion industry website WWD about her favourite mottos, Moss said: "There's 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. That's one of them."

Campaigners said Moss, 35, who has a seven-year-old daughter, risked creating eating disorders in girls and young women.

Beat, a British charity for people with eating disorders, said: "It's very unfortunate that someone who is a style icon would make such a comment. We can only think and hope that she wouldn't realise just how dangerous it could be.

"Young people struggling with an eating disorder are fighting a tough enough battle as it is, without thoughtless remarks such as this which can make it even harder."

Katie Green, a former underwear model who has launched a Say No To Size Zero campaign, blasted Moss's remarks as irresponsible.

"I think Kate Moss should really have thought before she spoke like most of us do before giving interviews," she said, quoted by the BBC, noting that the model has a seven-year-old daughter.

"Kate is a mother herself and how would parents with children suffering from eating disorders feel reading something like this?

"We are trying to get the government to put something in place to stamp out size zero models and comments like this aren't doing anything to help that."

The fashion industry has been criticised for using so-called "size zero" models -- those who fit a US size zero -- particularly after the deaths of two South American women who had suffered from eating disorders.

A British report on the health of models in 2007 resulted in a ban on girls under 16 taking part in London Fashion Week.

However, Britain stopped short of measures taken in Spain and Italy, where models with a body mass index (BMI) below a certain level are barred.

- AFP /ls