Fearing a backlash from parents, Georgia lawmakers have stripped an anti-obesity bill of a key provision that would have forced students to climb on the scale for twice-yearly “weigh-ins. But critics argue that a person’s BMI “score” is a simplistic way of look at overall health and worried that it would add to the stigma faced by overweight children. The details of that test would be determined by the state Department of Education, but the use of BMI would be banned. The BMI mandate passed in the state Senate over the objections of some GOP lawmakers who labeled it “nanny state legislation. Karen Young, who runs a clinic for obese children and is a pediatrics professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said critics who worry that the test will stigmatize overweight children are missing the point. Read Childhood Obesity

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