Search
Close this search box.

Add BMI To Your “It’s Racist” Bingo Card

Redacted is an independent platform, unencumbered by external factors or restrictive policies, on which Clayton and Natali Morris bring you quality information, balanced reporting, constructive debate, and thoughtful narratives.

Is measuring BMI racist? That is what the American Medical Association suggests. The AMA is recommending that doctors start to focus on other body metrics because of the “eugenics” history of BMI.

BMI or body mass index is a measurement of weight versus height. It was developed as a way to measure the average height and weight of European men. The AMA says that this measure of health does not apply to different races and sexes.

Instead, the AMA suggests that instead of relying on BMI, doctors instead “measure a person’s visceral fat (considered to be the riskiest type that accumulates around the organs), the percentage of fat, bone, and muscle in one’s body, and genetic and metabolic factors such as abnormal blood sugar levels.”

They say that focusing on high BMI as an indicator of disease can be misleading because some Asian people are prone to disease even with low BMIs.

Related Articles

Join the mailing list

Get the daily email that makes reading the investment news actually enjoyable.

Related Articles