Tomato diet model dies of anorexia

A fashion model who lived on a diet of apples and tomatoes has died from kidney failure on the eve of a photographic shoot.

Ana Carolina Reston, 21, who had been modelling since she was 13, weighed six stone.

The 5ft 7in Brazilian was due to travel to France to work but instead spent the last three weeks of her life in hospital. Her death comes amid fears that designers are still using size zero models suffering from anorexia despite calls that they should be banned because they encourage eating disorders in young women.

The trend for size zero models – equivalent to a British size four – began as a fad in Los Angeles. Miss Reston died in San Paolo on Tuesday. She is the second anorexic model to die this year. Luisel Ramos, 22, suffered a heart attack in August after living on lettuce leaves and Diet Coke for three months.

Relatives said Miss Reston had resisted admitting she was ill. Geise Strauss, 30, her cousin, said: "When she did eat, she ate very little and she'd go to the bathroom and make herself sick as soon as she left the table. She liked apples and she adored tomatoes but that was about it."

Viviane Setti, the mother of Miss Reston's boyfriend, said: "Ana's death should serve as a wake-up call to all modelling agencies about anorexia. There's nothing glamorous about an ending like hers."

Last month, specialists at the eating disorders service and research unit at King's College, London, wrote to the British Fashion Council criticising the use of super-thin models who are "clearly anorexic".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1534393/Tomato-diet-model-dies-of-anorexia.html