Is it Possible to be too Thin?

There is a saying that 'no woman can be too rich or too thin', something which many celebrities seem to have taken to heart. You only have to watch a film or flick through a magazine or tabloid newspaper to see the emaciated figures of a number of high-profile stars. To achieve success as an actress or singer, it seems that talent is only one of the ingredients. You also need to have the right image and conform to a certain ideal of beauty. If you're overweight, it is going to much more of a struggle to get ahead in your chosen profession.

Instead of aiming for a healthy weight, though, it seems that celebrities are obsessed with becoming as skinny as possible. Many will claim that they've always been thin, but you only have to look at old pictures of Nicole Kidman and others to see that they may have been slim, but they were not all skin and bones as they are today. The trouble is it is these kinds of celebrities who are sending out the message that you have to be extremely thin to be successful. When they were a normal weight, they were famous, but not super-famous; they then lose the weight and the roles come flooding in.

Perhaps, it isn't all the fault of celebrities, then, when they are part of a system that demands they look a certain way, although you would think there would be some sort of collective backlash against the insistence on being ultra-skinny. There may be occasions when someone who is not skinny manages to get their name known for being good at acting or singing, just as Jennifer Hudson did, but there is such a preoccupation with their size that before long they have slimmed down to be the same size as the rest of them.

Of course, it is possible to be too thin, but clearly this is not something that most of those in the public eye are prepared to acknowledge. Being too skinny can lead to osteoporosis, anaemia, arthritis; it can affect your fertility, make miscarriage more likely and lead to heart problems. You don't necessarily consider this when you see glamorous-looking women promoting a film, perfume or some other product. You don't bother to think that in the flesh, these women probably look as if they could do with an extra meal or two, with their protruding bones and unhealthy pallor.

Instead of trying to get the celebrity bodies you see on television and in magazines, it is a better idea to concentrate on leading a healthy lifestyle, so that you can minimise your risk of developing health problems. Ultimately, being too fat or too thin can have a detrimental impact on your health and overall well-being, so that it is worth trying to get the balance right, rather than allowing yourself to become preoccupied with being dangerously skinny.