BMI Book Cover

I read the following Economist article recently http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21568389-state-can-do-some-things-encourage-people-eat-less-not-lot-fat-chance. When I first read the initial article, it fell into the “mildly interesting and thought provoking” category and no more. That was until I sat on very small plane with an extremely large chap. That particular flight was a most unpleasant experience – having the window seat whilst the man on your left literally overflowed into your own personal space wasn’t great. The fact that he drank Coke and ate Air France cookies the whole time just rubbed salt (or sugar) into the wound. That hour long flight got me thinking about the time when I lived in Denmark working on a project for a pharmaceutical company with a load of diabetes statisticians. Oh how a BMI tax sounds so seductive and easy…except for the fact that I recall endless debates about how exactly one measures BMI – it doesn’t seem to be that simple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index. However, this theoretical debate, which would indeed limit one’s ability to implement a BMI tax, was not as compelling as the following letter from Dave Powell in Bristol who said, “muscle is a lot denser than fat, so BMI doesn’t necessarily indicate fitness. To give an example, Mo Farah, one of Britain’s outstanding Olympic champions, has a BMI of around 21 (based on height and weight figures I found) which puts him in the BMI’s healthy category. But another great Olympic champion, Steve Redgrave, at a towering six-foot five, would have had a BMI of around 26 at his peak, which would indicate that he is overweight. Taking things a step further Mike Tyson would have a BMI over 33, which was off the scale on the BMI calculator I used. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to be first in the queue to inform Mr. Tyson that he is morbidly obese”… But the real moral of the story? As I got off the plane, the fat chap passed me my jacket and was the most charming of gentlemen. I suppose one really shouldn’t judge a person by his BMI score.