A Sliding Scale of Concern and Money Making/Legislating Opportunities! How To Check Your Health

When you walk through a grocery store and gaze upon all the damning headlines of America and American’s, obesity is one to critique a bit:

BMI does not take into account age, gender, or muscle mass. Nor does it distinguish between lean body mass and fat mass. As a result, some people, such as heavily muscled athletes, may have a high BMI even though they don’t have a high percentage of body fat. In others, such as elderly people, BMI may appear normal even though muscle has been lost with aging.  Take for example, basketball player Michael Jordan: ”When he was in his prime, his BMI was 27-29, classifying him as overweight, yet his waist size was less than 30,” says Michael Roizen, MD.

See “How Accurate Is Body Mass Index, or BMI?

And again:

The primary reason why over 60% of Americans are “overweight” has nothing to do with fast food, cars, or television; it is not because Americans are eating too much and exercising too little; nor is it because of any “fat” gene within us; nor is it because of any clear evidence linking body weight to health. The reason why a majority of Americans are overweight is because a handful of scientists and government health officials, many with significant ties to drug companies, have arbitrarily designated “overweight” and “obese” at very low levels. These thresholds have little to do with any scientific evidence about weight and health and a lot to do with the pecuniary interests of academic researchers, government agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry. [According to the Body Mass Index — BMI] George W. Bush or Michael Jordan [in his prime] are “overweight” or Arnold Schwarzenegger is “obese,” (which they are according to our current standards), it is not because of their poor fitness or their precarious health. It is because the very people who are defining these terms stand to gain by setting a very low threshold for determining what overweight and obese should be.

See the article entitled, “The Curious Politics of Defining People by Their Weight