I have been looking over an interesting website ??? www.obesitymyths.com and while I cannot vouch for its accuracy, it does  make some assertions worthy of closer consideration. I was particularly interested in their comments on how the obesity epidemic was accelerated by a simple change to the definition of obesity. The site tells us that ???35 million Americans went to sleep one night in 1998 at a government-approved weight and woke up ???overweight??? the next morning, thanks to a change in the government???s definition ???  ???Overweight??? had previously been defined as a BMI of 27.8 for men and 27.3 for women; in 1998 it was lowered to a BMI of 25 for both genders.???

A recognised problem with the Body Mass Index, is that it simply measures our weight relative to our height. It does not allow for muscle. The site goes on to cite a research letter published in JAMA (the journal of the respected American Medical Association) that reported that 97% of players in the National Football League are technically overweight and more than 50% are obese. Celebrities who suddenly found themselves overweight included Will Smith and Pierce Brosnan, while Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson immediately became obese. Tom ???the sexiest man alive??? Cruise woke up to find himself  obese as a result of his height deficiency against his broad-shouldered, muscled body.

The site reports that the 1998 redefinition prompted a group of researchers to criticize the new threshold in The American Journal of Public Health. They wrote:

“Current interpretations of the revised guidelines stigmatize too many people as overweight, fail to account for sex, race/ethnicity, age, and other differences; and ignore the serious health risks associated with low weight and efforts to maintain an unrealistically lean body mass ??? This seeming rush to lower the standard for overweight to such a level that 55% of American adults find themselves being declared overweight or obese raises serious concerns.”

This seems to me to be eminently relevant. The last thing people need is another reason to feel bad about themselves ??? the media already does a great job of this! My biggest concern is that it creates a focus on the need to lose weight when the research shows that we are better off being overweight and fit rather than slim and unfit. The site also looks at the research behind well propagated ???research findings??? that being overweight dramatically shortens our life span. It finds that the research behind these statements is not as solid as people think. While I do not accept all the points on this site, it does prompt us all to raise our level of critical discernment when confronted with the ???science??? around obesity.