My friend, Pat, is a poet and recently initiated a conversation regarding the nature of truth and untruths.  There are  interesting and provocative gray areas to be explored when factoring in white lies and the imperfect nature of memory.

Meanwhile,  I ponder the question “What is Healthy”?   Many schools and workplaces are now defining healthy as a Body Mass Index (BMI) that falls within a certain range.   BMI looks at two data points, height and weight; drawing conclusions regarding a person’s health without regard for muscle mass or other factors.  It is a flawed measure.  I know a couple very athletic and obviously healthy individuals whose BMI categorizes them (ridiculously) as over-weight.

An excellent article from the National Eating Disorder Association addresses the dangers of BMI screening in schools.  This practice gives many students the message that their body isn’t good enough; a diagnosis that is cruel, irresponsible and can serve as a trigger for eating disordered behavior.  Young people are particularly susceptible to this kind of dangerous message, although adults are not immune.

The truth is (listen up Pat!) that people naturally come in all different sizes and shapes. To provide an accurate assessment of someone’s health you need to know much more than their height and weight.   You need to consider many other factors, both physical and mental, in order to diagnose someone’s health.  People with ‘normal’ BMIs  can be suffering from disordered eating, resulting in poor health and a poor quality of life.  You simply cannot tell if someone has an eating disorder (or is healthy) by their BMI.

The backdrop for the wave of BMI screenings in the school and workplace is the growing incidence of obesity, along with our prevailing culture of judging our bodies harshly against impossible, unrealistic and unhealthy ideals.  I am intrigued by the overlapping societal conditions that (I believe) contribute to both obesity and eating disorders.  Certainly some obesity can be traced to disordered eating–so the two conditions are not mutually exclusive.

How much healthier could we all be, if we stopped believing that everyone needs to be a certain number or look a certain way?  How much healthier could we be if we accepted our natural shapes and sizes without fearing the judgement of ourselves and others?   How much healthier would we be if we respected, liked and cared for our bodies – including exercising regularly and eating based on our individual body’s needs and our natural cues of hunger and satiety?

It is food for thought.

 

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