2008 Woodie Awards
A few extra pounds may make you live longer
Associated Press
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Just in time for Thanksgiving comes the word we've been longing for: People who carry a little extra weight are dying at lower rates than their "normal" sized counterparts.
The latest research, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, stirs up unresolved conflicts about the true risks of those love handles.
For years, a public health drumbeat has argued we're eating ourselves into early graves, risking cancer, heart disease and other ills. Skinny mice live longer, we're told. Losing even a few pounds will improve your health.
Yet a counter rhythm also has been gaining volume, as studies of large groups of people document that moderately chunky folks aren't actually dropping dead as anticipated. They're outliving the normal sized.
Even the federal Centers for Disease Control has flip-flopped, sharply lowering its estimates of obesity-related deaths over the past three years.
Now federal officials are downplaying the death risk angle and instead telling people that their daily lives and health care costs will improve if they weigh less. Those who study obesity, and those who study obesity researchers, suspect two things are going on.
First, the relationship between weight and health is much more nuanced and personal than can be explained with a simple weight chart or a single study.
Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, family health history and even waist circumference play a role.
And second, we have such a cultural horror of fat that we're predisposed to believe even a little is bad for us.
"We see our data through cultural lenses, and the cultural lens that most of us wear in contemporary American society is one in which thin is better," said Abigail Saguy, a UCLA sociology professor who is writing a book on medical and political debates about weight.
Katherine Flegal, lead author of the latest study and a senior research scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics, puts it differently.
"The whole issue of weight and mortality is fairly complex. There's no simple, one-size-fits-all way to talk about this," she said.
Flegal advises people to see their doctor for the best assessment of their personal health risk at any weight.
More broadly, the CDC now recommends that at all weights, people should exercise regularly and eat nutritiously to optimize health.
Yet the CDC also promotes a weight range that is coming under increasing fire, from its own researchers and others.
At the crux of the debate is who is "overweight" and what the term really says about health.
In 1998, in a controversial move that some argued played into the hands of the diet drug industry, the federal government toughened its guidelines, adding roughly 25 million Americans to the ranks of the dangerously hefty.
The latest research, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, stirs up unresolved conflicts about the true risks of those love handles.
For years, a public health drumbeat has argued we're eating ourselves into early graves, risking cancer, heart disease and other ills. Skinny mice live longer, we're told. Losing even a few pounds will improve your health.
Yet a counter rhythm also has been gaining volume, as studies of large groups of people document that moderately chunky folks aren't actually dropping dead as anticipated. They're outliving the normal sized.
Even the federal Centers for Disease Control has flip-flopped, sharply lowering its estimates of obesity-related deaths over the past three years.
Now federal officials are downplaying the death risk angle and instead telling people that their daily lives and health care costs will improve if they weigh less. Those who study obesity, and those who study obesity researchers, suspect two things are going on.
First, the relationship between weight and health is much more nuanced and personal than can be explained with a simple weight chart or a single study.
Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, family health history and even waist circumference play a role.
And second, we have such a cultural horror of fat that we're predisposed to believe even a little is bad for us.
"We see our data through cultural lenses, and the cultural lens that most of us wear in contemporary American society is one in which thin is better," said Abigail Saguy, a UCLA sociology professor who is writing a book on medical and political debates about weight.
Katherine Flegal, lead author of the latest study and a senior research scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics, puts it differently.
"The whole issue of weight and mortality is fairly complex. There's no simple, one-size-fits-all way to talk about this," she said.
Flegal advises people to see their doctor for the best assessment of their personal health risk at any weight.
More broadly, the CDC now recommends that at all weights, people should exercise regularly and eat nutritiously to optimize health.
Yet the CDC also promotes a weight range that is coming under increasing fire, from its own researchers and others.
At the crux of the debate is who is "overweight" and what the term really says about health.
In 1998, in a controversial move that some argued played into the hands of the diet drug industry, the federal government toughened its guidelines, adding roughly 25 million Americans to the ranks of the dangerously hefty.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Constantin1957
Mehmet Guven
posted 11/08/07 @ 7:03 PM CST
What 1s "a little extra weight" as compared to being "normal ized" Some form of quantitative definition would be needed, in BMI terms or other. Otherwise, any person who is not in highly obese status will tend to think that he/she is carrying a little extra weight, and it is not a problem, because extra weight doesn't matter as long as blood pressure etc are not bad,the person gets some exercise and eats well. (Continued…)
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