Huh? This seems strange. I wonder how many of the other things higher up in the chart are because of obesity. Sort of like how excess smoking and drinking causes so many other problems like cancer and heart disease but lots of time doesn’t get the credit. Wonder what the motivation here is?
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
That study was done with the BMI. The BMI doesn't really show if you are overweight or not. It classifies most professional athletes as obese.
Posts: 132 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Maybe a more accurate study with more recent data is the motivation?
"Overweight is Good"--it doesn't say that anywhere on the linked article. Huh. I wonder what your motivation is?
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Modern medicine is probably a large part of the decreased risk from obesity. Without my BP medicine, I would be at high risk for heart disease due to being overweight.
quote: A related study, also in Wednesday's JAMA, found that overweight Americans are healthier than ever, thanks to better maintenance of blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
posted
I never put much stock in BMI. You’d think they’d use something a little more precise like body fat %. And now that you can get scales that do this with a decent accuracy for a decent price, you’d think they’d stress it a bit more.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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PS Jay stole the headline from Drudge -- the bias/inaccuracy is Drudge's; all Jay's guilty of is mindless obsequiousness
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ahh, I was confused about the definition of BMI, which is why I edited above. Thanks for clarifying.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I don't see how Drudge took away anything from this article about obesity being good. It says right in the first paragraph that it's still the number 7 cause of death.
quote:The new analysis found that obesity -- being extremely overweight -- is indisputably lethal. But like several recent smaller studies, it found that people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight.
Biostatistician Mary Grace Kovar, a consultant for the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center in Washington, said "normal" may be set too low for today's population. Also, Americans classified as overweight are eating better, exercising more and managing their blood pressure better than they used to, she said.
posted
I saw a similar article to the one in the original post today accompanying the new food pyramid. The gist I got was that "they" are now saying that the "normal" by which so many of us are rated overweight or obese is by no means normal and in fact may be dangerously underweight for modern lifestyles. So if and when "they" get around to adjusting "normal" to take into account 21st century life (i.e. urban life), we'd find out that we're a lot less overweight than we currently think we are.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Unless they have made major improvements, those bodyfat scales aren't very accurate. Skinfold measurement is cheaper and more accurate.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote: Biostatistician Mary Grace Kovar, a consultant for the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center in Washington, said "normal" may be set too low for today's population. Also, Americans classified as overweight are eating better, exercising more and managing their blood pressure better than they used to, she said.
Indeed. This is a step in the right direction, I believe, but I still wait for the day when we realize that normal for one is dangerously underweight for another.
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