UrbanVsRuralPoverty

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Urban street kids have higher BodyMassIndex than rural poor (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1920570.stm) which suggests better health.

I wonder why.

Because a lot of wealth including food flows into cities? Hence more available? (See also FallingApart)
Because city kids eat a lot of discarded high calorie industrial food? Whereas rural poor eat lower calorie "natural" food?

How good is the BodyMassIndex of measuring more general health?

According to BBC : BMI is a measure of a person's weight relative to their height. A score of 20-25 is deemed to be healthy. It has been shown to be a very effective method of predicting which people are likely to fall ill, or to suffer from a lack of energy.

I think it's appropriate to be sceptical about the applicability of BMI as an instrument here. Esp since this work is being done by anthropologists, not people with medical or even nutritional education. Here's an interesting thread I found from some folks discussing different health indicators and how different ranges can indicate different things for different populations: https://web.archive.org/web/20010223125752/http://www.univ-lille1.fr/pfeda/Ngonut/1998/9808f.htm Of course, it's also worth noting that crappy fast food might, relative to the alternative, actually be healthier for someone who's severely malnourished, because fat-at-any-price is needed.) –BillSeitz