Posted by admin on April 25th, 2009 in Food, Health, Hot Topics, Teen Age Girls

Miss Universe Australia finalist (and Sydney model) Stephanie Naumoska  is a waif.  Pictures of her flew through the internet and on the Today Show, Friday.   Seeing her thin frame walking down the runway is startling.  On Thursday, the rail-thin beauty queen was selected as one of 32 finalists to compete in Australia’s Miss Universe contest, a competition that supposedly encourages “healthy, proportioned, bodies.”

Stephanie Naumoska, 19, was one of 32 contestants out of  7,000 potential entrants.  She stands 5 ft. 11 in. tall and weighs 108 lbs, giving her a body mass index of just 15.1.  Most health officials would say the 19-year-old is malnourished.   “She would be categorized as underweight and I would certainly want to be doing an assessment of her diet to make sure she doesn’t have some type of eating disorder,” said one dietitian.   She then added, “She needs blood tests, diet analysis and an overall assessment.”

Pageant Officials Defense

Pageant director Deborah Miller said brunette Naumoska, who was defeated in the final by Rachael Finch, had Macedonian heritage, which accounted for her extreme thinness. “This girl has Macedonian heritage and if you had been there you would know it is a Macedonian body type,” she said. “They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type. So she does not have an eating disorder.”  One thing Macedonian woman ARE known for is suffering physical violence. ( Recent research indicates that half of all women in Macedonia have experienced psychological violence and that 20 percent have experienced physical violence.)

But nutritionist Susie Burrell said there was no such thing called a ” Macedonian body type”.   “There is no evidence published anywhere to back up that assertion,” she said.   It was no surprise to me that when the swimsuit portion of the contest began, Ms. Naumoska was eliminated.  It is uncomfortable to look at a grown woman who has starved herself.  It might be easy for some in the audience to “overlook” her thinness while in formal gowns but impossible to avoid the “skin and bones” look she had in a swimsuit.

What Do  Teenage Girls Think?

“The most unhealthy part about it, though, is the image it is showing other young women who may view this as normal, when clearly it is not,” Dr Capolingua said.  She also said the pageant should impose BMI cut-offs, using only models with a BMI above 20.   She pointed out that, “Pageants should be leading the way to improve society’s view of what is an attractive BMI.” Well…good luck with that.

BMI Tells the Tale

A body mass index (BMI) of 17.5 or less is one of the criteria for a diagnosis of anorexia according to the World Health Organisation’s classification system.  Clearly, with a BMI of 15 this young woman would qualify.  We’ve been down this road before, remember the young Brazilian model who died in 2006 of starvation?   Ana Carolina Reston, a 21-year old Brazilian fashion model died from anorexia.   At 5′8″, she weighed only 88 lbs. with a body mass index of 13.5.   When she died, it was discovered she had been  existing on a diet of apples and tomatoes.