Too skinny or thin models have been banned in Israel .The Israel government passed the direction on  on January 1, 2013 .The law aims at protecting  impressionable teens from eating disorders.

Only healthy looking models with a Body Mass Index of more than 18.5, such as the country’s most famous model , Bar Refaeli, will be able to work there.

The law, approved by the Knesset (the government’s legislating branch) last March, requires models to produce a medical report showing they have maintained a healthy BMI for three months before a shoot or catwalk show.

“This law is another step in the war against eating disorders,” said physician and law co-sponsor Rachel Adatto (with Danny Danon) after a 2011 reading of the draft, according to the Times of Israel. Underweight models, she explained, “can no longer serve as role models for innocent young people who adopt and copy the illusion of thinness.”

BMI is the globally accepted method for estimating human body fat based on an individual’s weight and height.

But critics have said the legislation should focus on health, not weight, because some models are naturally thin, and BMI does not take genetics into account.

The issue with super-thin models exacerbaing probelms with anorexia is a frequent matter of concern.In 2006, countries including Italy and India banned underweight models from the catwalk after two anorexic models in Uruguay and Brazil died.

Uruguayan Luisel Ramos, 22, collapsed and died soon after stepping off the runway, reportedly of anorexia-linked heart failure.

By UP