Fat or Fiction

A ‘new’ BMI calculation has been proposed by Oxford Mathematician Professor Nick Trefethen but does it really address the problem with a calculation that is over a century old. Ruth Alexander looks at how it has developed and what it really tells us, if anything, about our health.

Correction: Tim Cole who appears in this programme is a Professor of Medical Statistics at University College London not Cambridge University.

Picture: Lifestyle and Leisure Gastronomy, Science Photo Library