The best example is Italy, it has the lowest obesity rate of Europe, (1) but also has the highest consumption of cooking oil of Europe (2)
I was surprised in Italy when I saw how much olive oil they used while cooking. For me oil was just like a cooking aid so stuff does not stick to the pan, in Italian cuisine olive oil is not just an aid, it’s part of the ingredients
BMI is also a bad measure of health. It only roughly estimates how statistically unhealthy someone would be if they were an american in the middle 20th Century. Bodies can be healthy at any size. Exercise helps.
For country-level data, there is nothing wrong with BMI. There is at best a low single digit percentage of the population who is athletic enough that they’re BMI-overweight without actually being fat.
What’s crazy to me is that sumo wrestlers aren’t actually fat, they eat and exercise in a certain way that the fat only builds up on the outside, not in their heart or anything that would cause health problems. So it’s more accurate to say they have fat but are incredibly healthy.
That’s true to a point. Extra fat based weight is harmful that’s just a medical fact.
How much is too much for a specific individual can be somewhat variable, and body composition matters.
BMI as a tool can be clunky and not ideal at times, but if you’re more than 1 point off the healthy range and you’re not a body builder your health will be impacted (over time).
I’m overweight myself, but I don’t try to convince myself I’m in peak condition.
Fat isn’t unhealthy. Excess calories and absence of exercise is not healthy.
Also the U.K. population is unhealthy just like the U.S.
UK doesn’t have the highest rate of obesity in Europe, and is similar in levels to Germany. It’s a problem across Europe.
Yes! Fat by itself isn’t unhealthy.
The best example is Italy, it has the lowest obesity rate of Europe, (1) but also has the highest consumption of cooking oil of Europe (2)
I was surprised in Italy when I saw how much olive oil they used while cooking. For me oil was just like a cooking aid so stuff does not stick to the pan, in Italian cuisine olive oil is not just an aid, it’s part of the ingredients
BMI is also a bad measure of health. It only roughly estimates how statistically unhealthy someone would be if they were an american in the middle 20th Century. Bodies can be healthy at any size. Exercise helps.
For country-level data, there is nothing wrong with BMI. There is at best a low single digit percentage of the population who is athletic enough that they’re BMI-overweight without actually being fat.
BMI isn’t perfect but it’s still a good tool to compare two large, similar populations.
And no, being morbidly obese is not healthy.
What’s crazy to me is that sumo wrestlers aren’t actually fat, they eat and exercise in a certain way that the fat only builds up on the outside, not in their heart or anything that would cause health problems. So it’s more accurate to say they have fat but are incredibly healthy.
That’s true to a point. Extra fat based weight is harmful that’s just a medical fact.
How much is too much for a specific individual can be somewhat variable, and body composition matters.
BMI as a tool can be clunky and not ideal at times, but if you’re more than 1 point off the healthy range and you’re not a body builder your health will be impacted (over time).
I’m overweight myself, but I don’t try to convince myself I’m in peak condition.