PrintThe AMA labels BMI 'racist'
"Delegates at the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates adopted [a] policy aimed at clarifying how body mass index (BMI) can be used as a measure in medicine," the group announced.
Apparently, a council within the AMA researched the "problematic history with BMI" and subsequently issued a report detailing a new policy on how BMI should and shouldn't be applied.
The report "outlined the harms and benefits of using BMI" and characterized BMI as "an imperfect way to measure body fat in multiple groups given that it does not account for differences across race/ethnic groups, sexes, genders, and age-span." The report's findings, of course, support the new policy — and the AMA's desire to educate physicians "on the issues with BMI and alternative measures for diagnosing obesity."
The organization released a statement reading:
Under the newly adopted policy, the AMA recognizes issues with using BMI as a measurement due to its historical harm, its use for racist exclusion, and because BMI is based primarily on data collected from previous generations of non-Hispanic white populations. Due to significant limitations associated with the widespread use of BMI in clinical settings, the AMA suggests that it be used in conjunction with other valid measures of risk such as, but not limited to, measurements of visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference and genetic/metabolic factors.
(Will the AMA soon consider, say, blood pressure guidelines "problematic" or "racist," too?)
AMA immediate past president Jack Resneck noted: "There are numerous concerns with the way BMI has been used to measure body fat and diagnose obesity, yet some physicians find it to be a helpful measure in certain scenarios." ("Immediate Past President"? What the hell is that? Can we make Joe Biden one?)
A few medical professionals have previously called BMI "racist" and linked it to "body terrorism."
In 2021, for example, University of Louisville medical students were subjected to a seminar on "the impact of body terrorism on fat LGBTQ people."
"Terrorism" isn't what it used to be. It is dramatically more inclusive. (Yay!) Today, anyone who entertains any notion — or incontrovertible fact — that in any way deviates from leftist dogma...is branded a "terrorist."
As we all know, the use of BMI disproportionately affects the BIPOC and LGBTQIIA communities, because, well, everything does. Somehow. Acid rain, monkeypox, COVID-19, inflation, Lyme Disease, droughts, floods, tornadoes, supply chain issues, painful rectal itch, cedar apple rust, E.D., poor air quality, stock market fluctuations — and every other conceivable (and inconceivable) measurement, standard, affliction, and malady — boldly and doggedly target these communities for no reason other than sheer hatred and bigotry.
A reasonable and logical conclusion, no?
