Size zero for those of you who don’t know is the current trend among celebrities and models where they starve themselves down to what they believe is an attractive weight.

Appalling images of stick-thin celebrities and other figures in the public eye has sparked off a huge debate as to whether this trend is detrimental for impressionable young girls.

Most of these famous actresses and models insist that they eat just like anyone else and undoubtedly there are a small, very small minority of women who are naturally stick-thin no matter what they eat. For the lollipop (big head and a tiny body) ladies we see in the media, they really aren’t following a healthy diet.

Starving themselves to ‘look good’ down to the size of a seven year old boy can have dramatic health consequences. In September 2006 model Luisel Ramos died days after appearing on the catwalk.

Newspapers reported that she was told that if she lost a ‘significant amount’ of weight (she was 5ft 9 tall and weighed 7stone when she died) she would succeed as a model!

You don’t have to be stick-thin to be fashionable. A grown woman who looks like she needs a good meal with a body that has been starved to resemble that of a young boy is not healthy and certainly not attractive.

Above: Actress Rene Zelwegger