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From Statistic To Eugenic Tool
- Quetelet's index was later repurposed by figures like Francis Galton and linked to eugenic thinking.
- The index shifted from a statistical description to a tool used in racialized and normative politics.
Insurance Tables Shaped Medical Norms
- Insurance companies in the 19th–20th centuries created height/weight tables to price policies and later influenced medical use.
- Those tables drew from self-selected, wealthy, mostly white policyholders and varied widely between companies.
Keys Pushed A Useful But Weak Proxy
- Ancel Keys popularized a standardized BMI during trials even though it only accounted for about half the variance in body fat.
- Researchers and Keys himself admitted BMI is an imperfect proxy but adopted it for convenience.