AMA Journal of Ethics^®

Healthist views about body shape and weight are oppressive and lead to pernicious harms, especially to members of vulnerable groups. 

Despite concerns about clinical outcomes for patients with obesity, clinical trials report few data about such patients.

Before the late 20th century, overweight and obesity were not considered population-wide health risks, but the advent of weight loss drugs in the 1990s accelerated hypermedicalization via BMI use. 

Diagnostic utility of weight and body mass index is widely overestimated, and their use as health and wellness measures can be sources of iatrogenic harm. 

Jorie Braunold joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article: “Fat Norms and the AMA.”

Body mass index cutoffs are routinely used to assess eligibility for gender-affirming surgeries, yet they are not empirically based.

Dr Whitney Riley Linsenmeyer joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Sarah Garwood: “Patient-Centered Approaches to Using BMI to Evaluate Gender-Affirming Surgery Eligibility.”

An irony at play: a patient’s gift of a box of donuts is offered in thanks just as a physician recommends “more vegetables, less refined sugar.”

Helping patients mitigate their risk of chronic disease is key, but dietary supplements are risky.

A nudge is an intervention designed to prompt a person to “voluntarily” make a choice intended by those who altered an environment or situation to yield that choice.