you just need to lose weight and 19 other myths

When patients anticipate judgment, bias, and stigmatizing language from doctors, they tend to avoid seeking health care-not just in terms of checkups, but also for potentially significant concerns that are already causing symptoms.

“Shifting away from BMI would require a tremendous overhaul in medicine and society since it’s so ubiquitous, but the reward would be taking away this harmful approach that contributes to racism, fatphobia, and misogyny.” Ripple effect “Use of BMI is rooted in anti-Blackness and sexism,” she says. It’s especially problematic because it’s based on white men, while Black and white people tend to have different body compositions, says Strings. BMI-a person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared-was developed as a way to assess a population, not individuals. A 2019 research review in Primary Health Care Research & Development about weight bias and utilization found evidence of patronizing and disrespectful treatment, poor communication, and assumptions about weight gain.Īnother aspect to consider is the common use of body mass index (BMI) as a measuring tool, says Sabrina Strings, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine and author of Fearing the Black Body: The Ra cial Origins of Fat Phobia. Other studies have shown that higher-weight individuals often experience shorter appointment times, less comprehensive exams, fewer referrals for specialists and imaging, and longer wait times for surgeries and other procedures.

You just need to lose weight and 19 other myths