In the January 2012 issue of PLUS Model Magazine, plus-size model Katya Zharkova is featured in an explosive editorial where thought provoking statistics and statements are revealed.

Flying around the internet over the last 24 hours the story that various news outlets have called “shocking,” “controversial,” “scary” and “provocative.”

Why are they so stunned? According to the coverage, it’s not the fact that the article includes a photo spread of the Russian plus size model Katya Zharkova posing nude or that in some of the photos she is shown embracing an emaciated-looking woman, also nude. (After all, Italian Vogue‘s June 2011 issue already went there, minus the thin woman.)

[Click on the pictures to enlarge them]

What apparently floored them are the article’s claims that the average fashion model weighs 23 percent less than the average woman and that “most runway models meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia.”

Actually there is no serious data supporting this fact at all.

But I have to admit that every day we seer zillions of pictures that shows us an idealization of women who could seriously benefit from a sandwich!

We’ve probably to some degree become desensitized to it, or think we have and do not care, which is perhaps why we don’t do more to fix the situation.

We live in a culture that exalts women who look like they don’t allow themselves food. Most of women size zero that I know eat NOTHING at all…. they feed themselves on an apple. Let me tell you, the sad reality is that they will pay the price later.

My friend told me, one time… -”I rather live a shorter life and being able to wear anything I like, rather than eat normally and being slightly overweight”….. well, that is her choice.

But now I see her looking much older than me, the proof that her skin needed more fat the 10 past years….

This was me at age 28, exactly 20 years ago, in the Canarian Islands, (African continent) where I lived during 5 beautiful years. I was at my best weight and healthy and I was eating normally. (photo by Marca)

Best advise, eat healthy, and KEEP MOVE!