Size 16s under attack

In this article in the Daily Mail, nutritionist Monica Grenfell attacks 17-year-old Miss England contestant Chloe Marshall for being a size 16, calling her size a 'shocking lack of self-control'. Monica writes 'It's a total fallacy that young girls are being pressured into near-starving themselves into being too thin.'

She believes Chloe is 'undeniably overweight', explaining: 'At 5ft 10in, Chloe should have a body mass index, or BMI, (indicating her levels of fat) of 20. Hers is 26.03....And if Chloe is so overweight at barely 17, one shudders to imagine just how fat she will be a few years down the line.'

It's surprising that, given the epidemic of eating disorders among young women, a nutritionist would be caught dead saying girls aren't at risk of wanting to be too thin, let alone promoting a BMI of 20 as the ideal. A BMI of 20 is on the low side of the normal, healthy range, but a BMI of 24.9 is equally normal and healthy, according to all responsible medical guidelines. Any doctor would tell Monica that there is no such thing as an exact 'one BMI fits all' weight - we all have a natural healthy weight within a reasonable range. Plus, a BMI of 26 is only slightly over the recommended range and most doctors and nutritionists would probably see it as perfectly normal and healthy: it can hardly be accurately descibed as 'so overweight'.

Any woman with an eating disorder who reads Monica's extreme size diatribe is likely to feel her insecurities triggered and it's likely that the article will have encouraged many women who are already at a healthy weight to try to diet down to a BMI of 20.

Monica goes on to talk about her experiences as a Miss England judge, saying: 'I was struck by how elegant, charming and yes, fit, the girls were. None of them was underweight.'

In 2005 I did a reportage feature on what went on backstage at the Miss England contest for Real magazine. While I didn't see any obvious anorexics, at least one size-eight girl that year was on a Slim-Fast diet and seemed very anxious about appearing half naked in front of the judges in case she looked chubby. It didn't strike me as a healthy, fit environment for young girls.

Monica claims that to be overweight is now fashionable, but what normal woman would agree with that? I don't know a single woman who wants to be overweight. There's no pressure to be a size 16 - not that that, the average UK size, is in any way outrageously plump in my book, as this article would have us believe. The consensus among women is to be a size 12 or smaller, and where does that pressure come from? It comes from articles like this one by Monica Grenfell - what a surprise. It's impossible to read her article as anything more than a size 12 and not feel guilty.

A size 16 is only two sizes bigger than a size 12 and is a much more common size, yet being a size 16 draws vitriolic attacks from the press while a size 12 is seen as OK. It's enough to make you pity any woman over a size 12 in the public eye, especially one so young as Chloe.