London - A chic black mini-dress and high heels should have provided the perfect showcase for Angelina Jolie’s long, lean legs.
Yet, instead of drawing admiring glances, the outfit merely highlighted the beautiful 40-year-old actress’s terrifyingly bony knees, with every tendon and sinew exposed like an anatomical drawing.
But while her figure may have sparked worried comments when she stepped out at a premiere last week, she isn’t the only celebrity to have such sharply protruding kneecaps.
Demi Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kate Moss have all revealed painfully bony knees. And doctors are warning that the look is not just unflattering, it’s downright dangerous.
“No one is naturally that skinny,” says consultant physician Dr David Ashton. “These women are probably existing in a state of permanent denial.”
Even worse, he points out that behind these unseemly knobbly knees is dangerously poor body composition. “As we get older, from the late 30s onwards, we naturally lose muscle mass.
“It’s inevitable, but can be mitigated with weight-bearing exercises such as tennis and walking. It’s vital that women do at least some or they will rapidly see diminishing muscle.”
There are key muscles, in particular the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis, which run down the thigh to either side of the knee. Put bluntly, if you don’t do the right exercise, you’ll have no muscle definition around the knees.
“Look at athletes,” says Ashton. “They have beautifully defined legs, even if they’re very slender. It’s muscle.”
The fact that Hollywood stars often have very low body fat only highlights the lack of muscle around the kneecaps.
“If you rely on dieting to keep you thin, by your 40s or early 50s there will be no fat padding left around the knees,” says Ashton.
Lack of fat also means that skin sags around the area, a problem exacerbated by sun exposure.
Long-term, there are significant health risks. “A lack of lean muscle means you will become feeble,” says Ashton.
A simple test of muscle strength is to see whether you can rise from a chair without using your hands. “If not, your muscle mass is poor. A third of women over 50 fall into this category.”
Ashton also believes very knobbly knees could be a sign that some skinny stars are technically obese, which means they may suffer from high cholesterol levels and insulin resistance. Lack of calcium in the diet means there may be a high risk of osteoporosis.
“Women ought to be less than 25 percent fat,” says Ashton. “Many super-skinny celebrities will be as much as 50 percent fat because of the lack of lean muscle mass.
“As they have no lean muscle mass, you’re looking at two eggs stuck to a broomstick. It’s not a good look.”
Daily Mail