Australia's Miss Universe contest was thrown into controversy yesterday when doctors and dieticians complained a losing finalist was "skin and bones" and dangerously malnourished.

Fellow finalists branded Stephanie Naumoska, 19, "too bony", according to the Herald Sun newspaper.

Naumoska was one of 32 contestants who made the final at an event aimed at promoting "healthy, proportioned, bodies". She is 1.8m (5ft 11in) tall and weighs 49 kg (7st 8lb), with a body mass index of 15.1, beneath the benchmark for malnutrition.

Rosanna Capolingua, a Perth GP and Australian Medical Association president, told the paper: "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."

She said the contest should impose a minimum BMI of 20.

Naumoska denied she had an eating disorder. "I eat six to eight healthy meals a day," she said. Pageant director Deborah Miller said Naumoska had Macedonian heritage, which accounted for her extreme thinness. "They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type, just like Asian girls tend to be small," she said.

Naumoska was defeated in the final by Rachael Finch, a television presenter who will represent Australia in the finals in August.