A Miss Venezuela 2013 contestant has revealed she had mesh sewn to her tongue to prevent her eating solids.

Interviewed for a BBC special Secrets of South America: Extreme Beauty Queens, First Runner-up Wi May Nava said she had had breast implants, dental work and a nose job, as well as having a piece of plastic mesh sewn to her tongue.

“It makes me lose weight quicker,” she explains to interviewer Billie JD Porter, because it hurts too much to eat anything but liquids.

Also interviewed for the show is Osmel Sousa, the president of the Miss Venezuela pageant, who handed out the brutal advice to Ms Nava and a range of other aspiring beauty queens.

At one point, a contestant faints from “not eating enough.” Mr Sousa’s advice to her? “If you faint like a beauty queen, get up like one.”

Feminists, he says, are “ugly Betties with no hope of a fix. They are all horrendous.”

This article originally appeared on News.com.au.