I ran across this article and found it very much worth reading. Thought I'd pass it along.
"From Average to Ideal"
Here is the preface:
This article examines the historical origins of the notion of “ideal” body weight by tracing the evolution of the gender-specific height and weight table in the United States from 1836 to 1943. Fewer than 200 years ago, weight was not regarded as an important health issue. At the turn of the twentieth century, low body weight, not overweight, was the leading concern of medical practitioners. With the rise of actuarial science, weight became a criterion insurance companies used to assess risk. Used originally as a tool to facilitate the standardization of the medical selection process throughout the life insurance industry, these tables later operationalized the notion of ideal weight and became recommended guidelines for body weights. The height and weight table was transformed from a “tool of the trade” into a means of practicing social regulation.
And the pith of the marketing of the height/weight table as an ideal:
Funds earned by mutual life insurance companies depended on premiums paid by policyholders. It was optimal for the insurer for the policyholder to live as long as possible so that the annual payments for premiums would exceed the company’s future obligation and thus earn a profit. For that economic reason, in the early history of life insurance only individuals whose physical conditions met the high standards set by the company were
insured.1
Why they chose to insure only those who weighed enough:
The applicant’s body weight was an important indicator of health and
well‑being and subsequently an important factor in the acceptance or denial
of an applicant for life insurance. The focus on weight arose from the common belief that weight was a visible physical indicator of an individual’s health. Weight was perceived as a valuable resource in the case of disease,
trauma, or emergency (Weigley 1984). Thinness was discouraged, as plumpness and roundness of size characterized well‑balanced health. For example, John Gardner (1875: 83–84) presented this common medical opinion of body weight in post–Civil War America: “The popular expression applied to persons of a rounded form, moderate embonpoint, clear skin, and a ruddy color,—that they are ‘in good condition,’—accords with science. This condition is most commonly accompanied by healthy internal organs, a very desirable and hopeful state. . . . Yet, until it [fat] becomes burdensome, it is generally disregarded.” Due to the threat of tuberculosis throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, medical examiners were cautious with young, underweight individuals, who were regarded as more susceptible to this and other deadly, infectious diseases, and often denied them policies. As a result, selection was “more liberal” toward applicants of heavy builds,
especially when applicants were under the age of 30 (Ward 1932: 219–21).
The height and weight tables were created so that people would be able to pay the greatest number of years of insurance premiums. A huge industry was built, for its own ends.
