Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults

The Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults was a publication released by the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in cooperation with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in September 1998. The report met with controversy because it lowered the Body Mass Index (BMI) at which Americans were considered overweight from 27 for women and 28 for men to 25 for both sexes.

Some claim several panelists who wrote the report had conflicts of interest because they held positions in the weight loss industry. For example, the panel's chair, Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, was Executive Director of the Weight Watchers Foundation at the time of his appointment as chair of the panel and moved on to join the Board of Directors of the Weight Watchers Foundation prior to the report's publication.

NHLBI Obesity Education Initiative Expert Panel Members
The panel members who authored the report include:
 * Chair: F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer
 * Diane M. Becker
 * Claude Bouchard
 * Richard A. Carleton
 * Graham A. Colditz
 * William H. Dietz
 * John P. Foreyt
 * Robert J. Garrison
 * Scott M. Grundy
 * Barbara C. Hansen
 * Millicent Higgins
 * James O. Hill
 * Barbara V. Howard
 * Robert C. Klesges
 * Robert J. Kuczmarski
 * Shiriki Kumanyika
 * R. Dee Legako
 * T. Elaine Prewitt
 * Albert P. Rocchini
 * Philip L. Smith
 * Linda G. Snetselaar
 * James R. Sowers
 * Michael Weintraub
 * David F. Williamson
 * G. Terence Wilson

Ex-Officio Members:
 * Claude D. Brown
 * Karen A. Donato
 * Nancy Ernst
 * Robin Hill
 * Michael J. Horan
 * Van S. Hubbard
 * James P. Kiley
 * Eva Obarzanek

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * International Obesity Task Force