With winter fast receding for another year, the approaching summer brings with it the promise of longer afternoons, warm sunshine, and a chance for children to escape the confines of home and enjoy playing outside during the long nights. Of summer.

However, with advances in digital entertainment and coupled with the fears parents face about letting their children play outside unsupervised, many young people will spend the next few nights in front of the television or video game console instead of running around like crazy. outside with his friends. This alarming reluctance to venture outdoors to play tag, hide-and-seek, cowboys and Indians, or today’s game of choice is widely attributed to the rising tide of obesity in our youth.

So far this year, the media have highlighted this issue by reporting on the health risks of being overweight, not only in children, but also in adults. People classified as obese are much more likely to develop life-changing diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and osteoarthritis, to name just a few. Also, from the opposite end of the range, these reports of obesity are matched by the recent ‘size zero’ protest that has flooded our celebrity-obsessed culture. However, both extremes lead to numerous health risks and the current buzzword for assessing whether you are ‘too skinny’ or ‘too fat’ is BMI (Body Mass Index).

BMI looks at the relationship between your weight and your height to assess what your body weight should be. The guide can then be used to establish whether or not a person is of “normal” weight; but there have been numerous debates as to whether BMI is an accurate assessment of health in relation to weight, as not everyone can agree on the point at which someone becomes ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’. With confusion over what to eat or how much to weigh, are we becoming an image-obsessed society or the possibility of a health crisis when our indulgences finally catch up?

For healthcare providers, these lifestyle trends may cause concern. If the NHS is struggling to deal with the diseases of an active generation, how will it deal with the consequences of today’s sedentary generation? Some private health insurance providers have jumped on the bandwagon and reward members who lead a healthy lifestyle or have a ‘normal’ BMI by offering a discount on their premiums. Alternatively, overloads can occur if your lifestyle is not as healthy or if your BMI is slightly higher than necessary.

But if the experts can’t agree on what your BMI should be, how can your private health insurance provider be so sure? Health-on-Line, for example, recognized this confusion and removed questions related to height and weight from its application process. Just tell them your age and what you want to be covered for and you’ll get a competitive quote for the same amount whether you’re big or small.