The Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a weight-to-height ratio used by health care providers, insurance companies, and the scientific community.<br />But according to HuffPost, criticism of the BMI is mounting. It's being called out for being both sexist and racist.<br />The BMI was created by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet in 1832, using data from predominantly European men.<br />Physiologist Ancel Keys reintroduced the scale in 1972 as the Body Mass Index, and it has since been adopted by the medical community.<br />However, critics say the BMI is merely an extrapolation of statistics based on white European men, applied erroneously to women and persons of color<br />Furthermore, the BMI doesn’t take body composition of fat versus muscle into account. Also, a person’s weight doesn’t correlate directly with their health.<br />BMI has been widely adopted by the medical world as a shorthand for healthy or unhealthy. That fact is unscientific and harmful. Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani, MD Eating Disorder Specialist, Denver, Colorado
