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A report published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology has called for an overhaul of our understanding of obesity. An over-reliance on using Body Mass Index [BMI] as a metric has the peculiar…

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A report published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology has called for an overhaul of our understanding of obesity. An over-reliance on using Body Mass Index [BMI] as a metric has the peculiar effect of leading to both underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis of the condition. __________________________. BMI does not give accurate information about how fat is distributed in an individual’s body. It frequently fails to capture the true state of health of an individual. A person’s BMI may indicate they are “obese”, but their organs and bodily functions may be absolutely normal. Every individual is a unique constellation — not only of genes and other biological variables, but also socio-economic conditions and habits.
  1. Obesity is the end result of multiple factors and BMI can pinpoint the cause of the problem
  2. Further, much of the information on diabetes, obesity or BMI available on social media is misleading
  3. BMI reading can help the doctor to accurately prescribe the appropriate dosage to reduce fat
  4. This is because BMI does not provide a reliable picture of health, nor any direct measure of fat

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D - This is because BMI does not provide a reliable picture of health, nor any direct measure of fat
The blank must explain both under- and overdiagnosis and lead into 'BMI does not give accurate information about how fat is distributed'. 'This is because BMI does not provide a reliable picture of health, nor any direct measure of fat' does exactly that. The claims that BMI pinpoints the cause or allows accurate dosage contradict the passage, and the social-media sentence is off-topic.

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