Is the girl with the 20-inch waist an unhealthy role model?

The answer to this may seem like a resounding yes even without seeing shots of the model in question who, as you might expect, has been greeted with a chorus of disapproval, even from within the world of fashion which routinely throws up images of girls shaped like pogo sticks.

The owner of the 20-inch waist is a 30-year-old Romanian model by the name of Ioana Spangenberg who has responded to overwhelming criticism that she is a seriously unhealthy role model for aspiring catwalk stars by saying that her body is “all-natural.”

According to Ms Spangenberg, who is almost as tall as the average man but weighs around 85 pounds, her daily food intake consists of “toast with jam or eggs for breakfast, a snack of chocolate and crisps around 12 pm, a lunch of sausage, chicken and potatoes,” whilst later in the day she pigs out on “bread, meat and cheese sandwiches."

Yet not a hint of flab is there to be seen, a situation Ioana is more than happy with despite many considering her to be an unwelcome poster girl for anorexics.

Ms Spangenberg’s 20-inch waist is, as it happens, pretty much the size of the circumference of a DVD disc but you will be relieved to hear is larger than a Blue-ray disc. 

Now that really would have been unhealthy.