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Louis J. Peterson
San Jose (Calif) State University

Grete Heinz, PhD
Body-Matrix Inc Menlo Park, Calif

JAMA. 1986;256(21):2958.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

A series of studies, of which "A Twin Study of Human Obesity"¹ is the most recent example, have relied on the body mass index (BMI) to draw far-reaching conclusions about weight and health status. We question the validity of these interpretations.

The BMI denotes how much a person's weight deviates from the average weight of young adults of the same height. This deviation in weight may result from excessive leanness or fatness. It may also represent normal weight for a bone structure that is not average for height or muscularity that differs from the average. By stating that work on the covariance of the BMI in twins has "confirmed the importance of genetic influences on human fatness," the authors assume that variations in fat account for these weight deviations.

On the basis of our research on bone structure and body composition, we challenge the assumption that, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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