First models were criticised for being too thin, now it seems they're too fat. An Italian researcher says the fashion industry shouldn't promote plus size models because it will encourage women to gain weight.

Luca Savorelli claims thin models are good because they encourage women to be thinner and allowing plus size models to become the norm could encourage obesity. "Obesity and being overweight is the problem of western society," Mr Savorelli says. "So what's going to happen here if we don't balance well.

But with the number of women suffering from eating disorders increasing, body image is also a problem of modern society. In 2006, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston and Uruguyan Luisel Ramos died from anorexia.

And after growing pressure on the fashion industry to curb the use of size zero models, Spain and Italy imposed restrictions on models' weight. However Mr Savorelli's argument that models who look like real women could exacerbate the obesity problem has been rubbished by health experts, who say healthy women on cat walks are not the drivers of obesity.