If you have ever left your child's well visit feeling like you did something wrong, this episode is for you.
In this episode of Family in Focus, I break down the history of BMI, diet culture, and why weight became the focus of your child's doctor visit.
Because your doctor did not make up that advice. But understanding where it actually comes from changes everything.
Because the message has a history.
And that history matters.
I take us back to the 1830s, when a Belgian mathematician, not a doctor, not a researcher studying children or health, created the formula we now call BMI. He was explicit that it should never be used to assess individual bodies. And yet nearly two centuries later, it is the primary screening tool used at your child's well visit.
I also explore how diet culture became embedded in medicine, why we defaulted to numbers in the first place, and what it means to start countering that culture in your own home.
In this episode:
-The origins of BMI and why it was never designed for your child
-How diet culture entered the doctor's office
-Why weight-focused advice activates shame instead of change
-The narrow history behind who built our health systems and what got left -out
-What it looks like to shift from chasing numbers to building relationships
New episodes air every Wednesday.
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While I am a doctor, I am not your doctor. This podcast is for education, not medical advice.