Harris Interactive's Obesity Study Turns Junk Science into Scary Headlines

The AZcentral.com site is running a story with the screeching headline "Many Americans Don't Even Know They're Fat."

I was intrigued by what science (or lack thereof) might lurk behind the headline. So I took a look.

Harris Interactive/HealthDay ran the study, which asked respondents to provide their height and weight. From there, the pollsters calculated their body mass index.

BMI? Oh, dear lord. If you haven't heard of it, BMI measurements are only a step above boring a hole in someone's head to let the fat spirits out. Here's how it "works": Divide your weight by your height and you get the index's results. The range for a normal, healthy weight, according to BMI, is 18.5 to 24.9.

The media knows that BMI is junk science - as proven by NPR's "Top 10 Reasons Why BMI is Bogus" story proves). Anyone with two neurons to rub together knows it's outmoded. See, it doesn't recognize the difference between an overfed 6′2 225-pound couch potato with a body-fat percentage of 35 from a body builder with the same dimensions, but only 7 percent body fat. BMI assessments rank them the same.

Either the mainstream media is more ignorant than I realize, or it's willing to run a debunked measurement for the sake of a scary headline. Judging from the comments, people are taking this "data" far too seriously, hungrily slurping the lie like a pint of cheap ice cream.

The study's conclusion is that people think they're thinner than they are.

The HealthDay story quotes Regina Corso, vice president of Harris Poll Solutions:

"While there are some people who have body images in line with their actual BMI, for many people they are not, and this may be where part of the problem lies. If they do not recognize the problem or don't recognize the severity of the problem, they are less likely to do something about it."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but why would a story like this quote the vice president of a polling organization? Is she a physician, a personal trainer? No. Is she herself even remotely fit? I have no idea.

There's also a quote from Keri Gans, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association:

"I think too many people are unsure of what they should actually weigh. For many, they have grown up in a culture were most people are overweight and that is the norm, or they have been surrounded by too many celebrities and fashion in the media and think very thin is the norm."

She doesn't seem to address the poll and its methodology - meaning they didn't ask her, she didn't know or she felt her organization needed the ink at all costs. I truly hope that Gans didn't just miss a golden opportunity to shove BMI back into the Dark Ages.After seeing it push out such inaccurate and misleading information, I really can't take HealthDay seriously at all. And Harris Interactive should hang its head for basing a study on BMI.