Scientists from Tel Aviv University’s School of Public Health have come up with a new way to tell if we’re healthy or not.
It’s not about our Body Mass Index (BMI), which is what doctors usually use. It’s about how much fat we have in our bodies.
Calling for a New Gold Standard
They studied about 3,000 people in Israel and found that the amount of fat in the body tells us more about our health and the risks of heart disease and other problems.
They think that checking body fat should be the main way to do this, and want clinics in Israel to have the right tools for it.
The Biggest Study of its Kind
The study, which was the biggest ever done in Israel, was led by Prof. Yftach Gepner and PhD student Yair Lahav.
They used data from a nutrition center in Tel Aviv. Their findings were published in a scientific magazine called Frontiers in Nutrition.
The Problem with BMI
According to Prof. Gepner, more than half of the adults in Israel are overweight. BMI, which looks at our weight and height, is used to check our health. But the problem is, it doesn’t always tell us the full story.
Sometimes, people can have a normal BMI but still have too much fat in their body. This can lead to problems like heart disease, diabetes, and liver and kidney problems.
The Paradox of Obesity with Normal Weight
In the study, they found that over a third of the people who were a normal weight actually had too much body fat. This means they were ‘obese with normal weight’.
When they checked their blood, they found that these people also had high levels of sugar, fat, and cholesterol, which can lead to health problems.
On the flip side, some people who were considered overweight actually had a normal amount of body fat.
Alarm Bells Ringing
Prof. Gepner said their findings were a bit scary. They found that a lot of people in Israel who have a normal weight are actually obese when you look at their body fat.
These people might not get the help they need to change their diet or lifestyle, because their BMI is normal.
A New Way Forward
Based on what they found, the researchers think that body fat is a better way to check a person’s health than BMI.
They suggest using tools like skinfold measurements, which check the thickness of the fat under our skin, or a device that measures how electricity moves through our body, which is already used at many fitness centers.
In conclusion, Prof. Gepner said that measuring body fat could help identify people who are at risk for health problems, even if their BMI is normal.
He recommends that all clinics should have the right tools to measure body fat, to prevent disease and early death.
The study was published in Frontiers in Nutrition.
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