BMI–body mass index–is becoming a joke to some people.
Just check out any BMI chart. Most will have disclaimers that the index–a measure of body fat, judged by weight in relation to height–doesn’t apply to athletes, whose muscle mass screws up the measurements. Or to the elderly, whose lack of muscle mass also screws up the measurements.
So exactly what good is this formula that magically tells us whether we’re underweight, on target, overweight or obese? (And, by assumption, links weight to health problems?)
Not much, according to an emerging group of academics, who–while linked to The Center for Consumer Freedom, a restaurant industry coalition–say fat isn’t necessarily fatal.
Although the center isn’t advocating that we all stuff ourselves uncontrollably, it is proclaiming that being overweight, by itself, isn’t the problem and that the clamor to get us all on the BMI bandwagon is making us feel bad about our bodies, while doing a good job of promoting the weight-loss industry.
“The BMI is relatively useless as an indicator of health for individuals. Contrary to what we have been told by the government, there is a minimal relationship between increased BMI and health-related issues, except at the very extremes of the weight distribution (very, very fat and very, very thin),” Dr. Jon Robison of Michigan State University says.
To make its point about the arbitrary nature of BMI, The Center for Consumer Freedom (www.consumerfreedom.com) calculated some actors’ BMI scores. Guess what? Will Smith, Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman and Denzel Washington turn out to be overweight. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stacks up as obese, as do Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise.
You wanna tell ’em?
Naturally, there are those who find the BMI chart useful. Two years ago, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston calculated the risk of stroke in terms of the BMI. Men with a BMI of 30 or higher (obese by BMI standards) were found to be twice as likely to have a stroke compared with men who had a BMI of less than 23, a healthy weight.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
