Bad news: Americans are fatter than we think
Braverman and his co-author, Dr. Nirav Shah, New York State’s Commissioner of Health, studied 1,400 men and women, comparing their BMI measurement to their percentage of body fat, as measured by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. While BMI is a simple ratio of a person’s height and weight, the DEXA scan — which is normally used to measure bone density — can distinguish between bone, fat and muscle mass.
Among the study participants, about half of women who were not classified as obese according to their BMI actually were obese when their body fat percentage was taken into account. Among the men, in contrast, about a quarter of obese men had been missed by BMI. Further, a quarter who were categorized as obese by BMI were not considered obese based on their body fat percentage. Overall, about 39% of participants who were classified as overweight by their BMI were actually obese, according to their percent body fat.
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God, don’t you miss him?
BettyRuth on April 5, 2012 at 9:08 AM
The biochemistry has been available since at least the 60s (my undergrad degree is in biochemistry, BTW). The trouble is, where it has been applied to nutrition, the science has largely been ignored or obfuscated by outside forces.
We have known for decades that excess sugar consumption (the fructose component) leads to fatty liver disease, which correlates perfectly with high SDLDL and heart disease (ASVD). We have also known that sugar consumption leads to Type II Diabetes. We have known for decades that sugar pushes fat storage into overdrive. We know on a molecular level exactly how and why these things happen, and it is not new information.
Yet we as the public at large continue to ignore this information and even argue against it. Why? Because onset of problems is slow? Perhaps because the FDA, nutritionists, and other organizations do not want to admit they were wrong? Because they know that eating right (mostly meats and vegetables with whole grains) requires that we grow enough food for the population, which is costly and has environmental impacts? Because the sugar and corn industries and all the industries that put their products into everything would lobby against changing our ways? Because food prices would necessarily rise? Perhaps a little bit of all of the above?
I agree with you about all the fad diets and other misinformation out there, but sugar (especially fructose, but including glucose in quantity) is scientifically provable to be bad for us.
stvnscott on April 5, 2012 at 9:32 AM
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