“The BMI is controversial. In the 1830s, Belgian scientist and sociologist Adolphe Quetelet created what would eventually become known as the BMI to determine what body the socially ideal man would have. He based it on the measurements of white European men of his time, and didn’t intend for it to be applied to the bodies of women or people of colour. He also developed his system long before the contemporary stigma around obesity began to take root. Some doctors now apply additional measurements, like waist circumference, to determine whether a patient’s size is considered healthy. But size alone is not an effective measure of a person’s health”