Two decades ago, an average model weighed only eight percent lower than the average size woman but today she typically weighs 23 percent lower than average women, according to a recent blog. Even the plus size models have gotten smaller.

Statistics in the PLUS Model magazine show nude company photos of plus-sized models with some runway models entwined in the nude. The spread is intended to be aimed at those in the fashion industry while revealing women’s dissatisfaction with the industry’s unwillingness to market the average size.

Women in the editorial advised women to shun images that are unrealistic and make demands for the average size woman through the social media network. Evidently, their pictorial received over 300,000 hits and over 11,000 shares on Facebook, while also being re-tweeted more than 800 times.

Former model, Beverly Johnson shared with ABC News that when modeled 20 years ago she was between sizes four and six during the peek of her career. Johnson said she isn’t surprised that now her size is considered a plus-size and that this obsession of being super thin is worrisome.

She also says she sees more women and even men that are super thin than she has seen any time in our history. Johnson’s daughter is currently a model for plus-sizes and she is proud of the work she is doing to help women embrace their size.

Johnson added that her daughter is a warrior for women today to learn to love their bodies and embrace their sizes.

These discrepancies may be contributing to the increasing number of young women developing eating disorders, according to one expert, Dr. Judy Scheel.

"Our society is so obsessed with celebrities, glamour and beautiful people that this has given so many young girls a skewed idea of what normal and healthy beauty really is," she said. "The perception that to be beautiful means to be thin has increasingly been a catalyst for many eating disorders that are developing in young girls, even as young as seven or eight years old."

Madeleine Jones, editor of PLUS, authorized the magazine to print nude photographs of a plus- sized model and a model considered normal size today. The plus-sized model is about the same size as Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova and Cindy Crawford in the 1990s. The editors noted that 20 years ago, most models weighed 8% less than the average American woman, but today they weigh 23% less. Most runway models have BMIs that would be considered flags for anorexia nervosa. Ms. Jones said the magazine had received thousands of Twitters and "shares" after the publication of the article.

"We are not advocating an unhealthy lifestyle, but the right to have as many fashion options as the next size two, six or eight woman," Ms. Jones said. "There are all sorts of epidemics right now besides obesity."

The writers also posed the question — Why does the fashion world accept so much money from plus-sized women but yet it refuses to design clothes for them, to use their images in fashion magazines and runway shows, and to make fashionable clothing available to them?

About a half million teenagers have eating disorders –most commonly, binge eating disorder and bulimia.

The Center for Eating and Dieting Disorders at the University of Sydney is advocating a move to diagnose the disorder by the severity of its stages, much like methods used for cancer diagnoses. Stephen Touyz, a professor there, says currently the disease can only be diagnosed if the patient suffers severely from anorexia nervosa. Touyz adds that the person is usually extremely ill by the time they develop anorexia and that others around you are already aware you have the disease. Anorexia nervosa is serious and up to 20 percent of those diagnosed could potentially die.

Professor Touyz proposes a system of phases that would introduce a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa with stage one being those who clearly suffer from it but have yet to meet official criteria for diagnosis. The reason for an early diagnosis is especially important due to the lack of treatment options hospitals provide for those suffering from anorexia. Adolescents with these disorders are covered well by public hospital systems but unfortunately there are few options for those who are adults. Adults have few places for treatment without private health insurance and there are few hospital beds available. Touyz says if you discover the problem early on, you can receive the proper treatment or even have better chances to overcome it and avoid being hospitalized.

Touyz believes the staging model would only improve the public’s awareness of anorexia and help people to have a better understanding of the disorder.

An article posted on the site for the Coastal Times highlights the important role that families play in helping children develop healthy attitudes about food from a young age. Rather than employing food in the roles of rewards and punishments, families must help kids to see food as fuel.

Additionally, when there is a weight concern in a family member, parents should not focus on putting that person on a diet. Instead, a very general effort should be made to help the family, as a unit, integrate healthier habits related to diet and exercise. This helps a child not feel singled out, and the whole family can benefit from improved habits.

It is especially important that children not be taught to eat when they are not hungry. If we teach children that eating is necessary in response to hunger, and not to eat for other reasons such as boredom or loneliness, the foundation is set for ongoing healthy habits. Children who are rewarded with food or given food to keep them entertained may develop unhealthy ideas about what the purpose of food is.

According to Obstetrician Gynecologist, Dr. Michael McCarthy, all three of these eating disorders pose problems for women who are trying to conceive. Poor nutrition along with stress and depression from suffering from an eating disorder all combine and make conception and a full-term pregnancy extremely difficult.

Nearly 1 to 2 percent of women suffer from anorexia. Dr. McCarthy explains that anorexic women often do not produce enough body fat to trigger menstruation. When the body is using its energy to survive the starvation it feels, it shuts down its ovulatory function. Amenorrhea, when the menstrual cycle stops, then occurs and prevents a woman from conceiving.

Nearly 2 to 3 percent of women suffer from bulimia. Women with bulimia are more likely to conceive than women with anorexia, but often miscarry lose their child before birth. Because a bulimic gorges himself/herself on food and then purges it by vomiting or using diuretic pills, they evacuate the nutrients the baby needs to survive. A study revealed that bulimics were twice more likely to miscarry than healthy women.

Women who suffer from obesity also often have trouble conceiving a child. Because their hormones are often unbalanced, signals that are normally sent to the reproductive system are interrupted and conception fails.

Dr. McCarthy also listed other reasons that could cause infertility:

• Smoking
• Alcohol abuse
• Excessive caffeine
• Older age, specifically 35+
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases

It is still possible for women who have eating disorders to have a baby, but it may increase their risk of developing gestational diabetes, postpartum depression, and having complications during labor. Some risks for the baby may include low birth weight, jaundice, birth defects and death within their first month of life.

For these reasons, it is best to manage eating disorders before becoming pregnant. Professional assistance and support from friends and family can better the health of both mother and child.

The encouraging news is that women who can cure their eating disorder will most likely be able to conceive and have a baby. 75 to 80 percent of women who get treatment and learn to overcome their eating disorder will eventually conceive a child.

Eating disorder programs are available to women suffering from disorders such as anorexia. Studies showed that in women who achieved 95 percent of a healthy body weight, 73 percent of them were aided by these programs so that their ovulation cycles were restored and they eventually became pregnant.

One of the reasons that female athletes can develop disordered eating patterns is the pursuit of excellence in their sport. Often, an eating disorder creeps up on the athlete as they hone their diets and increase physical activity through training. No athlete sits down and weighs the pros and cons, resulting in a decision to have anorexia or bulimia. Instead, the diseases are developed gradually, through small changes that become compulsions.

Along with an increased risk of developing an eating disorder, female athletes also have increased risk of injury among those with eating disorders. The physical tax of malnutrition paired with the impact of physical striving in competition can result in bone fractures and stress on the heart.

Female athletes are encouraged to be aware of the warning signs of eating disorders and keep an open dialogue with their teammates and coach about healthy eating practices while training. Because of the many hours spent together, teammates are often more able to spot a problem than an individual’s family or friends not on the team.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that there has been a 119 percent increase in hospitalizations for eating disorders among children under the age of 12. This may come as a surprise to those who have noted the almost constant news about the obesity epidemic among children.

Some eating disorder experts worry that the campaigns for education and prevention in response to the obesity epidemic may also be spurring some children to overly restrictive eating behaviors. While the programs to prevent obesity focus on healthy lifestyles rather than weight loss, some kids are extremely sensitive to this material and hear only the aspects related to weight management.

The article warns parents to watch for signs that their child may be developing an eating disorder. If a child suddenly takes an interest in becoming a vegetarian or vegan, for instance, parents should discuss this change with the child and their pediatrician, watching for signs that the child is struggling with a bigger issue. In addition, if a child disappears for a half-hour of more after a meal, parents should take note that there may be a problem.

Parents should not consider any signs of a problem to be just a phase. Instead, caution should be taken by keeping an open dialogue with their child and bringing the possibility of a problem to the attention of their pediatrician.

While research is expanding the understanding of eating disorders, in many ways what research has uncovered isn’t changing how the research itself is being conducted. Men are increasingly being admitted to treatment programs for eating disorders, but the bulk of research continues to lean heavily on data obtained from women.

A recent study appearing in the International Journal of Eating Disorders shows that even in a disorder that affects both men and women, like binge eating disorder, men are still underrepresented when it comes to research studies. Binge eating disorder is just as medically difficult for men as it is for women, but the number of men seeking treatment is much lower than the actual number of men estimated to suffer from the eating disorder.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Ruth H. Striegel of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, explains that while it is known that binge eating is associated with obesity, diabetes and hypertension, most of the evidence is based on studies that largely focus on females. The concern is that with men not equally represented in research, men may be hesitant to disclose a possible problem to their doctor, or doctors may be less likely to consider the possibility of an eating disorder when assessing criteria for a diagnosis.

The researchers analyzed information using a cross-sectional design, compiling data for 21,743 men and 24,608 women. The participants had undergone a screening for health risks. The researchers used the data to look for patterns related to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, depression, dyslipidemia and work productivity impairment.

The analysis revealed that of 46,351 individuals questioned, there were 1,630 males and 2,754 females that were binge eaters (qualified as having a least one binge eating episode during the past 30 days). The examination of the impact of binge eating on both physical and mental health measures showed that binge eating disorder was similar in men and women.

The study also provided evidence that binge eating significantly affects work productivity in both genders. This finding shows that there may be support for treating eating disorders similarly to depression and stress, as mental disorders that can have a significant impact on work performance.

However, a recently published study indicates that besides obesity and overeating, children in North America are struggling with restricting their eating at an alarming rate. In fact, the number of young children exhibiting the symptoms of eating disorders is double that of the number of children meeting the criteria for Type 2 diabetes.

The study, published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, examined the appearance of eating disorders among kids aged 5 to 12. It is the first countrywide survey to collect information about eating disorders in children.

The researchers found that girls were six times more likely than boys to meet criteria for an eating disorder. In both girls and boys, there was evidence of delayed growth. Girls exhibited delayed growth at a rate of 47 percent, while 55 percent of boys experienced a problem with delayed growth.

The children examined also had significant health problems in addition to delayed growth. About a third of the children exhibited problems with their vital signs, with both blood pressure and heart rate a concern. Almost half of the children required hospitalization. In addition, 62 percent of the children who had eating disorders with restrictive qualities were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.

To gather the information, the researchers received reports from 2,453 pediatricians collected over two years.

Parents are often unaware that children as young as 5 years old may be struggling with disordered eating behavior patterns. Because it is important to detect eating disorders early in order to ensure treatment success, parents should learn to watch for the signs of an eating disorder in children.

Among other signs, many children begin to exhibit controlling behaviors related to food, such as limiting their intake to one particular food group or only being willing to eat one color of food. In addition, many children will begin to wear baggy clothing or refuse to wear even a modest swimsuit in the summer.

Children who receive eating disorder treatment at an early stage are generally very successful at recovering from the eating disorder. Parents should contact their pediatrician if they believe that their child might be exhibiting signs of an eating disorder.

A recent article on MedPage Today discusses a recent study that found a connection between body satisfaction levels in adolescence among overweight girls and occurrence of disordered eating throughout years of follow-up. Those who were more satisfied with their bodies were less likely to develop binge eating disorder.

The researchers continued to follow up with the girls over an 11-year period, and young girls who reported that they were pretty much, a lot, or totally satisfied with their bodies were 61 percent less likely to meet criteria for an eating disorder. The girls who were satisfied with their bodies were also less likely to gain significant body mass over the follow-up period.

The study, conducted by Kendrin Sonneville, ScD, RD, and colleagues at Children’s Hospital Boston, sought to provide support for growing evidence showing a connection between body satisfaction and eating disorders during the adolescent years. The researchers utilized information from the Growing Up Today Study, including data from 1,559 girls.

The researchers found that about one in 10 girls met criteria for binge eating disorder at least one time during the follow-up period.