Harm Tag

The American Medical Association isn't any longer recommending the usage of BMI (body mass index) as a measure of health and weight, after years of controversy and criticism across the metric. Last week, the AMA voted to adopt a recent policy which recognises not only the bounds of BMI as an “imperfect measure” of health, but additionally its “historical harm” and “use for racist exclusion”. As an alternative, the association, which is considered one of the biggest medical groups within the US, now recommends alternative measures for diagnosing obesity – along with BMI – be utilized in clinical settings.  “For the longest time, I’ve been on this emperor-has-no-clothes situation, where I just couldn’t understand why really smart physicians proceed to depend...