Dear TIPSters,
At the risk of igniting more debate (not all bad, I suppose), I will
repost below the comment I posted about this story on the NPR web site.
SV
Stuart Vyse (stuartvyse) wrote:
The author makes arguments that miss the point of the CDC's use of
BMI, and, unfortunately, he provides further amununition for the food
and beverage industries, which have waged a long campaign against the
BMI.
The BMI is a useful measure because it takes data that is readily
available to most people (their height and weight) and turns it into a
rough (admittedly, rough) estimate of the appropriateness of their
weight. Better measures would require more cumbersome techniques
which, as a practical matter, would probably never be used by the
great majority of people. Opportunity missed.
It is easy to poke holes in the BMI. Lots of examples of errors have
been provided in the comments and elsewhere. But I would turn the
question around.
Is there a better measure of appropriateness of weight that can be
easily calculated using data that is readily available to virtually
every American citizen? If so, what? If the goal is education, the
information must get to the individual. BMI does this very effectively.
There is little question America has a weight problem.
To see how the food and beverage industries have waged war against the
BMI, see this industry-funded (check Wikipedia) website:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/index.cfm
Sun Jul 5 22:10:59 2009
Stuart Vyse
Professor of Psychology Web: http://stuartvyse.com
Connecticut College Email: [email protected]
270 Mohegan Avenue Phone: 860-439-2339
New London, CT 06320 Fax: 860-439-5300
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