The BMI Is Racist And Useless. Here's How To Measure Health Instead.

Burton via Getty Images If a research group today conducted a study on a single gender or ethnic group, critics would be quick to point out that its findings couldn’t reasonably be applied to anyone outside of that gender or group. “The whole thing is preposterous.” LeoPatrizi via Getty Images Making assumptions about a person’s health based on their BMI is preposterous. “At present day, has been widely adopted by the medical world as a shorthand for healthy or unhealthy,” said Jennifer Gaudiani, an internal medicine physician and certified eating disorder specialist based in Denver, Colorado. “It lies in the propulsion of diet culture onto certain groups in ways that start weight cycling from a really early age and do not honor body diversity.” She explained that a young girl of color might go to a pediatrician at age 7 or 8 and be told that they’re fat, when in fact they’re just experiencing a normal prepubescent weight surge earlier than a young white girl might. Williams explained that many doctors believe that when a person is at a higher BMI, it is not only their right but their obligation as a doctor to try and intervene: to encourage the patient to lose weight, discuss the patient’s body size and eating habits without the patient’s permission, and address this “issue” of weight before discussing whatever medical problem the patient may have come in for.