The Student Body Page #5

until the flesh

falls off the frog.

Or you stand

and fill sand buckets

until you lose 20 pounds.

Maybe mom and dad

ought to take these folks...

Okay. Wait.

Everybody calm down.

What is BMI anyway?

BMI was created

back in the early 1800s

by a Belgian researcher

named Quetelet,

and he was a man

of many interests.

He was a mathematician,

he was an astronomer,

and he did some work, um,

analyzing body measurements

and he came up

with a calculation,

weight over height squared.

It's calculated

using kilograms for weight

and meters for height.

In the United States, however,

we typically record measures

in pounds and in inches.

Um, as a result,

there's a simple calculation

that can be used and that's, um,

weight over height squared

times 703.

And the result is a...

Is an index

which we call body mass index

which is an indicator

of linearity or thickness.

I'm Dr. Stefan Czerwinski,

I'm the director

of the Fels longitudinal study

which is the longest

running study

of growth development and aging

in the world.

Uh, the study has been

around since 1929

and we continue to collect

body composition data

on children

over their lifespan.

So we use BMI

as an indicator of obesity

or what we often call adiposity.

We also use other measures

that describe that even better

in adults.

We know that

their issues with BMI

just in regard to athletes.

And children in particular, uh,

growth in boys over adolescence,

um, what you're gonna see

is higher BMls

due to muscle,

not because of fat.

And I think most researchers

agree with the fact

that BMI is not

a perfect measure

because it's easy,

it's relatively cheap,

um, it's used probably more

than it necessarily should be.

Why then are lawmakers

putting so much emphasis on BMI,

especially with children?

To find out more,

I visited Claire Mysko

who's dedicated her life's work

to studying and solving issues

of health, weight, and eating.

At the national

eating disorders association,

we really believe

in educating kids about health,

but to do it in a way

that focuses on health,

um, and holistically

and this idea

that kids should be fixated

on a particular number, uh,

to define their health

is incredibly problematic.

Um, so for the state to come in

and say,

"this is the measure of health

that we're going to apply,"

um, it's an inaccurate measure

of health for one thing,

um, and it's totally based

on a number, you know.

So for kids who are

already struggling

with low self-esteem,

poor body image, which she...

We know poor body image

is a huge problem

for many, many kids,

um, you know,

we find this potentially

very dangerous.

And this is the way

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