
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Send us a text
We've been told our entire lives that there's such a thing as a "healthy weight" - but the foundations of this belief are built on quicksand. In this episode, I trace the shocking history of how weight categories were created, exposing the corrupt origins of BMI and "ideal weight" tables invented by life insurance companies to maximize profits. I reveal how Louis Dublin, an employee of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company who literally wrote a book called "The Money Value of a Man," created arbitrary weight standards that had no basis in reality - and how these numbers kept dropping with no scientific justification.
What would life be like if Dublin had got decided that "abnormally tall" people needed to shrink to be healthy? I use this thought experiment to demonstrate the absurdity of medicalizing body size, especially since we've no evidence that “excess weight” causes illness or that intentional weight loss improves health outcomes.
Got a question for the next podcast? Let me know!
Connect With Me
Find me on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
By Dr Asher Larmie4
5656 ratings
Send us a text
We've been told our entire lives that there's such a thing as a "healthy weight" - but the foundations of this belief are built on quicksand. In this episode, I trace the shocking history of how weight categories were created, exposing the corrupt origins of BMI and "ideal weight" tables invented by life insurance companies to maximize profits. I reveal how Louis Dublin, an employee of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company who literally wrote a book called "The Money Value of a Man," created arbitrary weight standards that had no basis in reality - and how these numbers kept dropping with no scientific justification.
What would life be like if Dublin had got decided that "abnormally tall" people needed to shrink to be healthy? I use this thought experiment to demonstrate the absurdity of medicalizing body size, especially since we've no evidence that “excess weight” causes illness or that intentional weight loss improves health outcomes.
Got a question for the next podcast? Let me know!
Connect With Me
Find me on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

25,922 Listeners

422 Listeners

9,396 Listeners

57 Listeners

579 Listeners