Whitey Ford
06-25-2023, 01:00 AM
The American Medical Association admits BMI is racist
https://i.imgur.com/MEN4RWr.png
Body Mass Index (BMI), a seemingly simple health metric calculated by taking an individual’s weight, dividing it by their height, then squaring that number, has been the main metric to measure body fat since the 1970s.
It’s long been contested as flawed. It doesn’t for one, say anything about actual body fat—certain athletes, for instance, may register as obese due to muscle mass—nor does it account for fat distribution, a key factor in health risk associated with excess fat.
It is also racist.
Many in the medical community and beyond have decried the biased nature of the index for years, noting how it is used to pathologize bodies that don’t adhere to a white standard, and has become a tool of racism in society and health care.
On Jun. 13, the American Medical Association (AMA) finally acknowledged these issues, officially warning doctors to exercise caution in using BMI in medicine.
When Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet developed the index in the 1830s, he did so using data from European white men, making it inherently racist and sexist.
https://qz.com/bmi-racist-says-american-medical-association-1850542589
https://i.imgur.com/MEN4RWr.png
Body Mass Index (BMI), a seemingly simple health metric calculated by taking an individual’s weight, dividing it by their height, then squaring that number, has been the main metric to measure body fat since the 1970s.
It’s long been contested as flawed. It doesn’t for one, say anything about actual body fat—certain athletes, for instance, may register as obese due to muscle mass—nor does it account for fat distribution, a key factor in health risk associated with excess fat.
It is also racist.
Many in the medical community and beyond have decried the biased nature of the index for years, noting how it is used to pathologize bodies that don’t adhere to a white standard, and has become a tool of racism in society and health care.
On Jun. 13, the American Medical Association (AMA) finally acknowledged these issues, officially warning doctors to exercise caution in using BMI in medicine.
When Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet developed the index in the 1830s, he did so using data from European white men, making it inherently racist and sexist.
https://qz.com/bmi-racist-says-american-medical-association-1850542589