This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Just been through winter and carrying some excess baggage?
Come through Christmas with too much festive cheer?
Got a young baby and things are a bit hectic?
Simply carrying some extra kegs for no reason other than… it’s none of your business?
There’s very few of us who haven’t been there at some stage. Jamie Oliver has been copping a lot of flack this week about being hypocritical for promoting the world’s weight issues while not being at fighting weight.
Being overweight or obese is measured using Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a ratio of weight to the square of height. Overweight is defined as a BMI over 25, obesity is a BMI greater than 30.
There is a difference between not being more than your usual weight and being overweight or obese. I don’t know if Oliver would be clinically defined as overweight – at a guess I’d say no. Anyway, does it really matter?
Let’s focus on the important issue: in 2008, 61% of Australian adults and 25% of children were overweight or obese, and the figure continues to increase. You don’t need to be a featherweight to care about or promote this issue.
Current BMI aside, Oliver has chosen to leverage his celebrity and influence to promote this important health message. He’s arguably achieved greater breadth and deeper impact on this issue than most researchers and practitioners* who have spent their whole career in the field.
That’s what matters to me.
* Some of whom may not currently be at their preferred weight
A Time for Thinking 