Why do so few Britons use kg for body weight?

Britons tend to use grams and kilograms for a lot of things, including cooking recipes, gym equipment, commercial products and retail sales. However, they predominantly use stones and pounds for weighing adults and children and use pounds and ounces for weighing babies. Few use kg despite the fact that the NHS uses kg internally for body weight and BMI calculated by body weight in kg divided by height in metres squared. And despite the large number of everyday basic food products you can find in supermarkets that come in 1 kg packages.

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Why can’t weights and measures be left to the free market?

There have been recent reports in the press a butcher in Devon has started to sell meat in pounds and ounces after the UK had voted to leave the EU in a national referendum on 23 June 2016. This butcher is now giving customers the choice to buy meat in pounds and ounces or in grams and kilograms.

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