Rachel - BMI is a totally worthless screening tool - the fact that it has been seized upon by the government as primary test for public health care decisions is irresponsible.

BMI attempts to use height and weight to estimate body fat percentages, on the assumption that increased weight correlates to increased body fat. However there are numerous studies that shows that this is not a valid correlation.

As you point out not only does the BMI indicate that muscular, fit healthy people are obese, it also indicates that those that are malnourished to the point of muscle wastage are in the normal category. There are plenty of other measures and indicators that are considerably more accurate and simple to use.

I totally agree on on teaching by example, but I do have an issue with the amount of health education that is focusing on BMI based estimates of health to the detriment of the rest of the whole lifestyle/nutrition/exercise issue.

Many medics will provide referrals to available public treatments if they can, without really considering if it is in the broader best interests of the patient - they know that if it is what the patient wants then they will find another GP that is willing to refer them and go elsewhere. Our family is full of medics, this happens a lot with many different health issues.

If the health minister is able to stand up and announce that this is NSW's answer to tackling obesity then it will allow the focus on all the other, more politically challenging, aspects of the problem to be put on the back burner.

Sure, most people know that a Whopper Meal isn't an ideal part of a balanced diet, do they know how bad the "diet" products in the stores are? There is a strong case for much better public education about diet and nutrition, but there are some very powerful food businesses that are lobbying against it - many of these are not obviously in the 'junk' food business.