I'm'a vote self-centered jerks. But whatever it is, I share your bleh.

As for the article itself, I got as far as the comparison between the hypothetical 1950s "Betty" and her granddaughter "Jennifer" before wanting to stab my eyes out. The logic, it has left the building.

So I'm going to stick to just the issue you raised, Todd.

I absolutely think that the concept of "health" as a moral achievement to be sought at all costs is hugely prevalent in our society. It's quite obvious from the opprobrium that is heaped on overweight people, based on the assumption that "failure to fit into the government's charts of 'healthy weight' [which were redefined as recently as the 1990s so as to make millions of people "overweight" overnight]" equals "poor overall health." (Which is simply untrue.)

And the reliance on the BMI and constantly redefining it so that a healthy weight becomes lower and lower ... sigh.

The amount of money that is riding on more and more of us feeling like WEIGHT: WE'RE DOIN IT WRONG is pretty breathtaking. Not just crash diet (and more legitimate "lifestyle") shills, but doctors and the medical industry and the pharma corporations.

I'm not saying there isn't a healthy and an unhealthy, but I find it increasingly difficult to find trustworthy sources to tell me which is which.

Health is definitely a moral issue, and it's fucking nauseating.

And the reliance on the BMI and constantly redefining it so that a healthy weight becomes lower and lower ... sigh.

Given that people with BMIs in the current "overweight" category have been shown to live the longest, I have to wonder what in the hell the redefinition downward was really meant to do.

The logic, it has left the building.

And the research. To suggest that the American obsession with health food began in the 1970's is flat-out ridiculous.

I'm not saying there isn't a healthy and an unhealthy, but I find it increasingly difficult to find trustworthy sources to tell me which is which.

And consider the vast interpersonal difference between "healthy" and "unhealthy," based soley on the BMI -- someone who fits into the "normal" category might be a smoker who never exercises and doesn't really make an effort to eat fruits and veggies, but happens to have the DNA for a zippy metabolism (plus the effects of smoking). And an "overweight" individual might eat like an organic-food, fruit-and-veggie champ, in addition to being extremely athletic.

The "normal" weight person gets praised every single time.

(An aside: when I started losing weight back in December-ish, someone at work said "Wow -- you're losing weight! You look great!" And I said that I had switched to a new antidepressant that gave me knifey stomach pain and made it hard to eat anything, plus I had the bad bad bad stomach flu. Her reply? "Keep it up!" Uh, keep up the knifey stomach pain and getting so sick I have to go to the ER, just to fucking lose weight? What is wrong with people?)

I was reading Oprah's magazine when I was waiting to get my hair cut. And there was a short piece on the BMI and how it's not a good indicator. And that there are people who fall under "normal" who are extremely unhealthy with high blood pressure, cholesterol, and body fat. And "obese"people who are way healthier.

The article used two women as eamples, one is "obese", but she works out, she passes every stress test with flying colors, her blood work is great. The other woman is "normal", except she started feeling bad and did some blood work, which came back. And then a body fat test. She had 30% body fat, no muscle tone, and poor cardiovascular health. But if you just went by the BMI and her looks peole would say she is healthy.

YES - this is it exactly. One of the local TV stations - which I used to watch for their news - is running a campaign to fight childhood obesity. The spots for it that come on have one of their anchors (an attractive, very thin woman) come on and talk about the dangers and then say that the first step is finding your child's BMI ... go tp their web site and get the info.

So - the BMI is unreliable for adults, I've read that it's even more so for children (growth spurts anyone?), and you've got this campaign that's pushing the BMI as the primary criterion. argh

Hoover Organization article in two words: Times change.