'Pro-anorexia' scales taken off shelves over claims they could trigger self-harm

B&M Stores novelty scalesFacebook/Rachel May Shevlin

Novelty scales have been taken off the shelves after a woman complained they could be an anorexia trigger.

Rachel Shevlin posted on Facebook asking her friends to pressure B&M Stores to withdraw them.

The product reads, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" which is a controversial pro-anorexia phrase.

A B&M statement said: "We have asked the supplier to withdraw this particular quotation from this range of novelty £3.99 weighing scales."

Rachel Shevlin, who's from Manchester, said that she'd self-harmed when she was younger.

Rachel ShevlinDel Crookes

Rachel Shevlin plays for Manchester Roller Derby's A-team, the CheckerBroads

Her photo and comment about the "pro-anorexia" novelty scales has now had nearly 6,000 likes, more than 2,000 shares and lots of comments.

Writing on Facebook, she said: "How lovely (horrible, triggering) to see the phrase I said to my teenage/young adult self that also led to me calling myself a 'fat, disgusting waste of oxygen' often before self-harming just because I had dinner, sold in their shops ON FRICKIN SCALES so other impressionable young minds can suffer the same self-hatred?"

Kate Moss was criticised in 2009 after using the pro-ana phrase in an interview with the WWD fashion website.

Asked if she had any mottos, she said: "There are loads. There's, 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. That's one of them. You try and remember, but it never works."

Kate MossPA

At the time - Katie Green, a former Ultimo underwear model who launched the Say No To Size Zero campaign with former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik - said the comments were "irresponsible".

A report, commissioned by eating disorder charity Beat in February last year, estimates that more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists says education is the key to fighting eating disorders while Beat says talking it through is the best help a person can get.

If you want help with eating disorders, visit BBC Advice.

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