Overweight? No University Degree For You.

Thin people good (healthy). Fat people bad (could die).

That's the pseudo-science behind the body-mass index (BMI) and the many modern-day Commandments it has spawned.

The latest twist: No university degrees for fatties.

Some two dozen Lincoln University seniors may not receive their degrees this spring, thanks to a graduation requirement stipulating that students who enter college with a BMI over 30 must either prove to the school that they've lost weight, or take a one-semester class called "Fitness for Life." ... James DeBoy, chairman of the health, physical education, and recreation department, doesn't see a problem with the requirement. "We test for written, oral communication skills, and I don't see this as any different," he says. "We want our students to have a sound mind, but also a sound body."

As a side note, that would rule out Stephen Hawking, then.

The notion that thin is healthy, and fat leads to disease and death, is bizarrely limited. It ignores landmark research that shows that people who are moderately overweight enjoy better health than people who have the "right" weight as dictated by the BMI. In a major study by the Mayo Clinic, published in the Lancet a few years ago, overweight patients had better survival rates and fewer hart problems than those with a 'desirable' BMI. By the same token, subjects with a lower-than-ideal BMI had an elevated risk of heart disease.

We all know or have met people who are lean, and yet don't exactly look like the picture of health. They might include chronic drug (ab)users, bulimia and anorexia sufferers, AIDS and cancer patients, smokers, and so on.

The BMI is a flawed standard, and the procrustean zeal with which it is applied by medical professionals and busybody laypeople alike is disturbing. The BMI is a 175-year-old scheme dreamed up by an obscure Belgian physician in an era when phrenology was considered a solid science. If it has any usefulness at all, it should be used as a very rough, very broad guideline — not as a club to gleefully and smugly hit pear-shaped people over the head with.

Comments

[Don]

James (the)Boy, chairman of another unnecessary facility said, "....I don't see...."

+++++++++++++++++++

Would it be wrong of me to hope something horrible happens to this person, something that might make him *see* for the first time in his miserable life?

Live and let live.

[Brad Warbiany]

I suppose this university must not have a football team, because everyone on that team (with the possible exception of the kicker) probably has a BMI over 30.

[Nick]

This simply strikes me as a way to make someone take a class that they don't otherwise need. Money issue really. That being said, a BMI of 30.1 is light years from 35! Being mildly overweight is not the bogey man, obesity is! I would certainly hope that we aren't trying to put the potential health risks of obesity on par with being a "healthy" BMI.

[Derek]

What's even sadder than this is that the CDC acknowledges publicly that the BMI is a flawed, inaccurate measure of health, yet they still promote it as the #1 means by which to judge how 'healthy' people are in the U.S.

[Aaron Kinney]

First they came for the fatties, and I said nothing because I was not fat.
Then they came for the cripples, and I said nothing because I was not crippled.
Then they came for the homos, and I said nothing because I was not gay.
And then they came for me...

[Disgusted Dietitian]

One in four college women has an eating disorder. Where's the class for them? We all know that more information is not the solution to weight problems. If they were, Americans would be the skinniest people in the world. If Lincoln really cared about their students with health issues they would beef up their student health program, screen students for ALL health and eating issues, and offer nutrition counseling and support groups to students. Overweight people can be just as healthy - or just as eaitng disordered - as people who meet society's definition of a "normal" weight. When will this country wake up to the fact that you can't judge health by outward appearance?

[Nick]

just as a matter of record, a BMI of 30 or higher doesn't make you 'overweight', it makes you 'obese'. Think what you want about the BMI(I will agree it is flawed and should not be thought of as an end all be all. Yet, for the most part if gives a pretty accurate portrait of where someone is body wise.),But there is a distinct and rather important distinction between those two classifications. There just is no being healthy & obese. There just isn't, they are mutually exclusive.