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.
