Earlier this month, the Council of Fashion Designers of America released a set of guidelines in an effort to call attention to models with potential or existing eating disorders and to move towards promoting a healthy body image for women. Whether or not this movement will prove successful will remain to be seen.

The guidelines include several sensible tactics including:

-not allowing models under the age of 16 on the runway

-limited working hours for all models

-providing nutritious snacks backstage

-the banning of smoking and alcohol consumption backstage

-medical examinations by a doctor to assess models' health and body mass index

-requirement of treatment if an eating disorder is identified

However, these guidelines set forth by the CFDA are just that - guidelines. They are merely suggestions for what could and should be done to move toward a healthier lifestyle for the women they employ. They have established no real way of enforcing their new set of "rules", citing that their policy is "about awareness and education, not policing."

Though the CFDA is making a very big step toward rectifying a problem that has been under public scrutiny for well over a decade, one has to look at the many other factors involved in such a sensitive issue.

Eating disorders cannot and should not be solely blamed on the fashion industry. As a woman who has been there and back, and gone in and out again and again, I can say this with experience behind me. Eating disorders are a combination of self-hatred, depression, control issues and societal standards - the last factor being the least influential yet the most widely blamed.

People find it easy to blame skinny models, celebrities, even just thin women in general because it is easier than dealing with the other, more serious issues. However, an eating disorder is so very much about gaining control over one's life when feeling that everything else is out of control that the only thing that can be controlled is weight. It also goes hand in hand with depression and low self image.

Granted, all of these factors are compounded by the fact that our society promotes a near impossible standard of beauty. This can be proven by the fact that eating disorders do not exist in third world nations that are not exposed to fashion, celebrity and the media in general. However, this is the weakest - and last on the list - of factors in the equation.

That all being said, it is refreshing to see that the industry is taking a stand and trying to be more proactive in the fight towards a healthy body image for women and changing the standard of beauty in general. It is a small step down the right catwalk.