CDC STUDY BLOWS HOLES IN WEIGHT MYTH
[This is not new data. Some of it has been noted by the Review. The CDC still, however, continues to use the mathematical illogical BMI as a standard, which assumes that we are two dimensional rather than 3 dimensional creatures. This creates a substantial bias against taller people. The formula also doesn't consider genetic differences, body type, or percentage of fat]
INDEPENDENT, UK - After years of anti-obesity public health advice, a major new study causes an outcry by concluding that the overweight live longer. A startling new study by medical researchers in the United States has caused consternation among public health professionals by suggesting that, contrary to conventional wisdom, being overweight might actually be beneficial for health.
The study, published in the respected Journal of the American Medical Association, runs counter to almost all other advice to consumers by saying that carrying a little extra flab – though not too much – might help people to live longer.
Struggling dieters, used to being told that staying thin is the best prescription for longevity, are likely to be confused this morning if not heartily relieved. While being a bit overweight may indeed increase your chances of dying from diabetes and kidney disease – conditions that are often linked with one another – the same is not true for a host of other ailments including cancer and heart disease, the report suggests.
In fact, scanning the whole gamut of diseases that could curtail your life, being over weight is, on balance, a good thing. The bottom line, the scientists say, is that modestly overweight people demonstrate a lower death rate than their peers who are underweight, obese or – most surprisingly – normal weight.
The findings will be hard to dismiss. They are the result of analysis of decades of data by federal researchers at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. This is not a study from a fringe group of scientists or sponsored by a fast-food chain.
Being overweight, the report asserts in its conclusions, "was associated with significantly decreased all-cause mortality overall". . .
That the CDC has even published the report and thus threatened to muffle years of propaganda as to the health benefits of staying slender has enraged some medical experts. . .
The scientists are careful to stress that the benefits they are describing are limited to those people who are merely overweight – which generally means being no more than 30 pounds heavier than is recommended for your height – and certainly do not carry over to those who fall into the category of obese.
A PAGE FOR BIG PEOPLE
7 Comments:
"The bottom line, the scientists say, is that modestly overweight people demonstrate a lower death rate than their peers who are underweight, obese or -- most surprisingly -- normal weight."
Either this writer has a very poor ability to apply logical thought to their writing, or modestly overweight people have discovered immortality.
It is impossible for any subset of humans to have a lower death rate. 100% of humans die, eventually. It is only possible for the subset to have a lower rate of death from a subset of causes of death, or to live longer than other subsets of humans.
Agustin Goba
Or, most likely, the researchers are using a medical definition of death rate with which you are not familiar.
No, Goba's right. If you parse out that sentence, it makes no sense.
What other medical definition of "death rate" could you possibly be referring to?
Likely a case of poor proofreading striking again.
Try: the death rate within a given time period (granting the ability to compare the sub-groups meaningfully).
If the writer made a mistake it was apparently in overestimating the intelligence of his or her readers (or underestimating their smartassitude).
How about "rate of premature death"?
340 sounds like an expert on both low intelligence and "smartassitude", but then again, so do most folk who aren't mature enough to have their mistakes--no matter how minor--pointed out to them. Go to your room without supper, and don't come out til you've learned a bit better manners.
Grammar problems aside, this is really important news.
Hopefully the CDC will issue new weight standard charts that take into account things like bodyfat percentage and body frame size, and work as a three dimentional caculation.
When I've been razor thin, and cannot lose more weight without utter starvation, I'm techncally overweight, according to BMI. I'm really much healthier about 30-40 pounds over my ideal BMI, and I have the energy to be active then too.
Yet every visit to the doctor includes harassment about being over my ideal BMI. When I'm thin enough to approach my ideal BMI I'm constantly sick and cold, and have no energy.
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