Its front page tells readers "It's good to be you." But the latest issue of Women's Health magazine includes a rather less wholesome sentiment – a picture bearing the caption "Son, see that woman up there, she's a whore."

The unlikely outburst is featured next to a recipe for caramelised pear and buckwheat pudding cake, part of a feature about "maxi cakes for mini people".

The photograph of the cake features two miniature decorative models, one a man carrying a child on his shoulders pointing to a woman carrying a parasol standing on the cake.

"Yoohoo!" the woman is captioned as saying. The man replies: "Son, see that woman up there? She's a whore ..."

Women's Health, which is published by Hearst-Rodale, says the recipe will aid "better digestion".

However, the caption, on page 110 of the May/June issue, is likely to leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

One reader said: "Who'd have thought misogynistic attitudes would be alive and well on a sponge cake?"

A spin-off of the phenomenally successful Men's Health, Women's Health launched in the UK last year and is published around the world, including the US, Australia and South Africa.

Described as a "completely unique offering in the women's market, pioneering health and fitness as a lifestyle, with a fresh approach to psychology, sex, relationships, fashion, beauty and celebrity," the magazine sold an average of 102,000 copies an issue in the UK in the second half of last year.

A spokesman for Hearst-Rodale, a joint venture between Good Housekeeping publisher Hearst and US health specialist Rodale, had not commented at the time of publication.

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