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The American Medical Association (AMA) now discourages the use of body mass index (BMI), calling it an “imperfect” and “problematic” way of assessing body fat and claiming it has been used for “racist exclusion”.
The comments were included in a report presented earlier this month at the 2023 AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
“BMI cutoffs are based on the imagined ideal white person and do not take into account a person’s gender or ethnicity,” the report said.
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The AMA also claimed that the history of BMI is rooted in “eugenics,” which is “the scientifically flawed theory that humans can be improved through population selective breeding,” according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
What is BMI?
First created in the mid-1800s by a Belgian mathematician, Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, the BMI has been the international standard for measuring obesity since the 1980s, according to many sources, although some experts question its validity. have drawn.
A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing their weight by the square of their height in feet.
The American Medical Association (AMA) now discourages the use of body mass index, or BMI, as a means of assessing body fat. (iStock)
For example, someone who is 5’5″ and 135 pounds would have a BMI of 23.2.
On the BMI scale, any number less than 18.5 is considered underweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A reading between 18.5 and less than 25 is within the healthy weight range.
Someone with a BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight.
Any reading of 30 or higher indicates obesity, while a number over 40 qualifies as severe obesity, according to the BMI scale.
Some say BMI is linked to ‘white supremacy’ and ‘history of harm’
The National Alliance for Eating Disorders, based in Florida, has expressed support for the AMA’s recommendation to de-emphasize BMI.
It also called for it to be scrapped altogether “because of its racist and sexist norms and long history of harm, including harm to those most marginalized in our communities.”
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“We advocate for the recognition of weight diversity and hope that the medical community will prioritize health measurement tools that take into account the many factors that contribute to and impact a person’s health status,” said Dr. Katie Mittelstaedt, group outreach and clinical advisor, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Another eating disorder support organization, Project HEAL in Brooklyn, New York, echoes claims that BMI is rooted in racism.
The BMI was first created in the mid-1800s and has been the international standard for measuring obesity since the 1980s. (iStock)
“The BMI is based on research from the 1830s designed solely to study populations of white European males and does not have the medical relevance or authority it would have,” Project HEAL spokesperson Serena Nangia said in a statement to Fox News digital.
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“BMI has been inaccurately considered the gold standard for measuring health for decades, but its origins, as well as its uses, are rooted in white supremacy.”
“It’s not racist — it’s called good medicine,” says the doctor
Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, spoke out against the AMA’s stance on “The Ingraham Angle” earlier this week.
“I didn’t believe the AMA would get involved in canceling the culture, but now they’re scrapping the body mass index, which is what I’m looking at to at least get me moving toward obesity,” he said. .
The AMA’s call to abolish BMI could hamper the ability to charge insurance companies for obesity treatment, a doctor warned. (iStock)
The doctor said he uses BMI as a basic guideline to determine if a patient falls into a category that should be monitored more closely.
“It’s not racist — it’s called good medicine,” he said.
Dr. Siegel said he believes the AMA’s new policy was sparked by the body positivity movement, but he cautioned that removing the BMI measurement is a step in the “wrong direction” and “could lead to poor health outcomes.”
He said, “We don’t have enough prevention as it is, and we’re moving away from prevention.”
Removing the BMI measurement is a step in the ‘wrong direction’.
The doctor warned that the AMA’s call to abolish BMI could hinder the ability to charge insurance companies for obesity treatment.
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While Siegel agrees with the AMA’s claim that visceral fat — that’s fat found in the abdomen — is the most concerning type, he said he still relies on BMI as a general indicator of whether someone is at higher risk. has on diabetes. heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure.
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“I don’t need someone pulling tools out of my toolbox, and that’s what they do here,” he said.
“This is politics, not medicine.”
Melissa Rudy is a health editor and member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.
