Last updated at 23:09 01 April 2008

Magazine editors are being urged to curb the use of airbrushed models in their publications.

The move comes after an inquiry into the health of models found that unrealistic images on posters and in glossy magazines created an unhealthy and impossible ideal for women.

The Model Health Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Kingsmill, reported in September that digitally-enhanced body images could "perpetuate an unachievable aesthetic".

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Boob job: Keira Knightley appears in the British poster for 2004 film King Arthur; on the right she's been enhanced for the US poster of the same film

Now the Periodical Publishers Association trade body has appealed to the fashion industry to bring in a voluntary code to govern the use of "Photoshopping" - a digital process to give models unrealistically perfect figures.

The PPA, which represents about 400 UK companies, has invited editors to join working groups to discuss restricting the use of digitally-enhanced photos.

Influential names such as Alexandra

Shulman of Vogue, Lorraine

Candy of Elle, Jane Bruton of Grazia

and Kay Goddard of Hello! will be

invited to what is expected to be a

series of meetings to decide on best

practice, the Periodical Publishers

Association confirmed.

Representatives of the leading

publishing houses and the fashion

council will also attend on a date yet

to be set.

The move comes as an eating disorder

expert today claimed society's

obsession with being slim was pushing

more and more people into dangerous

diet-binge cycles, and sometimes

bulimia.

Professor Janet Treasure, of the

Institute of Psychiatry at King's College

London, said such disordered

behaviour may permanently alter the

way people's brains react to 'rewards'.

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Jane Fonda as she appears on her book cover, and in reality

They could then become more susceptible

to other addictions, such as

drugs and alcohol, she warned.

In the British Journal Of Psychiatry,

she also links yo-yo dieting to the obesity

epidemic.

Professor Treasure said

the Government needed to tackle society's

obsessive eating habits.

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Diana Ross in a cosmetics advert, and visiting a friend without make-up

'Although it may take time to change

the "thin ideal" we should remember

what has been achieved with cigarette

smoking.

'People are just beginning to

listen to the wealth of scientific evidence

about the harm that fashion

industry images cause.'

A spokesman for the PPA said of

the summit: 'We are aware of the

public feeling on the issue and it

needs to be addressed.'

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Renee Zellweger appears on the poster for Miss Potter, and what she really looks like

Susan Greenwood, chief executive of

eating disorder charity Beat, warned

that the industry had a history of paying

lip service to the issue.

She said: 'There was a summit at Downing

Street back in 2000 on digital manipulation

and body image issues with

fashion magazine editors and what's

changed since then? Nothing.'