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Fat or Fiction

Duration:
10 minutes
First broadcast:
Saturday 26 January 2013

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

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  1. Image for More or Less: Behind the Stats

    More or Less: Behind the Stats

    Tim Harford investigates numbers in the news. Numbers are used in every area of public debate. But...

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