Thursday, 21 September 2006

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Petra Nemcova: My struggle to be thin

Model tells of brutal dieting

Model Petra Nemcova knows what it's like to struggle to be a size zero in order to stay on the runway – and says she went on brutal diets and even took laxatives to stay thin.

"I went through so many diets in my life. I've been very, very skinny. I've been a size zero but I'm naturally more curvy," she tells PEOPLE. "I ate just vegetables, carrots, tomatoes. I went from a just-protein diet to just eating apples to eating no carbs. I took laxatives. I went through all of it just to be able to model."

Nemcova's comments come in the wake of a decision earlier this month by Madrid Fashion Week officials, who set off an international catfight by announcing that models participating in Fashion Week shows there had to meet a weight standard: Their body-mass index needed to be at least 18 – or 122 lbs. for someone 5'9".