Downsizing obesity

On Ancel Keys, the origins of BMI, and the neglect of excess weight as a health hazard in the United States from the 1950s to 1970s

Bibliographic Data

ID4002339
AuthorsNicolas Rasmussen (0000-0002-9498-0921, School of Humanities University of New South Wales Sydney Australia, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume55
Issue4
Pages299-318
Publication date2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/jhbs.21991
PMID31338844
OpenAlexW2963747039
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited70

In 1972 Body Mass Index, BMI was put forth by physiologist Ancel Keys in his analysis of Seven Countries Study heart disease epidemiological data as the best available measure of obesity. This work culminated more than 20 years of effort by Keys to discredit the accepted measure of obesity, weight relative to height, along with a major public health campaign in the United States to fight heart disease through weight control. Here, I retrace his campaign to replace weight as a measure of obesity and analyze its methodology and relationship to the broader research field of heart disease epidemiology. I also explore why the epidemiological community accepted BMI despite Keys's failure to demonstrate that either it or adiposity (body fat content), were superior as predictors of heart disease-one of the Seven Countries Study's central aims

Body mass index · Disease · Environmental health · Hazard · Neglect · Obesity · Pathology · Psychiatry · Public health · Sociology · Demography · Epidemiology · Health Promotion and Cardiovascular Prevention · Medicine · Obesity and Health Practices · Gerontology

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