Truckers have long been suspicious of companies that use the body mass index (BMI) as an indicator of their fitness to drive, and for good reason. It's a shortcut method that big-money insurance companies, health care providers and drug companies use to profit handsomely off a simple number and the questionable assumptions that lie behind it.
UCLA researchers recently published information that challenges these assumptions. While the research may be convincing, it will take more than this one study to shift the obesity mindset the healthcare industry now has. Nevertheless, this is a great step forward that may provide some comfort to the truckers who have been unfairly treated and financially exploited by the current use of BMI.
Excerpt:
"UCLA researchers, led by psychologist Janet Tomiyama, used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze the connection between participants’ BMI and key signs of health—such as blood pressure and cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride levels. They found that 47.4% of overweight people are, in fact, healthy, as are 29% of those labeled “obese.” Conversely, more than 30% of those within the “healthy” weight range were found to be metabolically unhealthy."
That said, truckers cannot afford to be lax about exercise.
While the above research breaks the link between fitness and "fatness," other researchers are presenting data that undermines those who "... tend to attribute better health or lower mortality only to the weight lost, .... They fail to explore the idea that it might be the exercise (and the better fitness that results) that makes the difference, rather than the [lost] weight itself."
See: It's still better to be fat and fit than thin and unfit
UCLA researchers recently published information that challenges these assumptions. While the research may be convincing, it will take more than this one study to shift the obesity mindset the healthcare industry now has. Nevertheless, this is a great step forward that may provide some comfort to the truckers who have been unfairly treated and financially exploited by the current use of BMI.
Excerpt:
"UCLA researchers, led by psychologist Janet Tomiyama, used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze the connection between participants’ BMI and key signs of health—such as blood pressure and cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride levels. They found that 47.4% of overweight people are, in fact, healthy, as are 29% of those labeled “obese.” Conversely, more than 30% of those within the “healthy” weight range were found to be metabolically unhealthy."
That said, truckers cannot afford to be lax about exercise.
While the above research breaks the link between fitness and "fatness," other researchers are presenting data that undermines those who "... tend to attribute better health or lower mortality only to the weight lost, .... They fail to explore the idea that it might be the exercise (and the better fitness that results) that makes the difference, rather than the [lost] weight itself."
See: It's still better to be fat and fit than thin and unfit
