Obesity: Time bomb or dud?

[Eunuchist (imported)]

Is gaining a few pounds really as bad as the popular media wants you to believe? E.

New Study Crushes CDC's Obesity-Death Statistic

"Being overweight is nowhere near as big a killer as the government thought, ranking No. 7 instead of No. 2 among the nation's leading preventable causes of death, according to a startling new calculation from the CDC ... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Tuesday that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths. -- Associated Press, April 19"

The first sentence of a front-page New York Times story this morning reads: "People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today." Is the so-called "obesity epidemic" dead? You be the judge.

The rest of the story:

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_det ... dline/2790

[JeffEunuch (imported)]

Is gaining a few pounds really as bad as the popular media wants you to believe?

New Study Crushes CDC's Obesity-Death Statistic

"Being overweight is nowhere near as big a killer as the government thought, ranking No. 7 instead of No. 2 among the nation's leading preventable causes of death, according to a startling new calculation from the CDC ...

Awesome! I'm awaiting more discussion of this in the scientific community.

I admit part of my response to obesity is visceral and aesthetic. I try hard to keep fit and to keep my weight down. I believe it's healthy. And I have always known that a few extra pounds might be good for you as a reserve in the event of something going amok, which is of course more likely for older folks. A few extra pounds isn't obesity. It often isn't even over-weight

[RJLupin (imported)]

It's still bad for you, no matter how you look at it. I've gained 60 pounds over the past two years, and looking bad (which I do) is the least of my problems. I'm short of breath, tired easily, and my blood sugar has gone into the borderline diabetes range. Not good at all. When you look at kids getting diagnosed with Type II diabtes (formerly found only in obese adults) it's obvious something is really wrong. Maybe you don't die as much from obesity per se as they said, but a lot of the consequences of being fat (diabetes, etc) are treatable now. But what kind of quality of life is that? "I may weigh 400 pounds and not be able to walk, and have to take 7 medications a day, but I'm not dead!" is hardly reassuring.

[JeffEunuch (imported)]

It's still bad for you, no matter how you look at it. I've gained 60 pounds over the past two years, and looking bad (which I do) is the least of my problems. I'm short of breath, tired easily, and my blood sugar has gone into the borderline diabetes range. Not good at all.

When I read of the new scientific conclusions re obesity, one of the issues I immediately identified was that the scientists may have more accurately identified causes of death, say diabetes rather than obesity, but that someone else might easily reach alternative conclusions for this reason. Nor have they discussed morbidity, all the illnesses, such as adult diabetes, that may stem from diabetes.

Yeah, 400 #s is no fun.

[Eunuchist (imported)]

It's still bad for you, no matter how you look at it. I've gained 60 pounds over the past two years, and looking bad (which I do) is the least of my problems. I'm short of breath, tired easily, and my blood sugar has gone into the borderline diabetes range. Not good at all. When you look at kids getting diagnosed with Type II diabtes (formerly found only in obese adults) it's obvious something is really wrong. Maybe you don't die as much from obesity per se as they said, but a lot of the consequences of being fat (diabetes, etc) are treatable now. But what kind of quality of life is that? "I may weigh 400 pounds and not be able to walk, and have to take 7 medications a day, but I'm not dead!" is hardly reassuring.

I would like to note that the results of the aforementioned study merely suggest that being a little "plumpy" might in fact be beneficial, but, as even the fiercest critics of the obesity hysteria agree on, being "heavy" is certainly no good. Gaining 60 pounds in just two years is obviously a worrisome trend; any weight gain of such proportions constitutes a health threat and should definitely be dealt with as appropriate. Investing in exercise and diet management would probably be the best solution.

As to the type II diabtes, I suspect that the increasingly earlier puberty and/or xenoestrogen-pollutants are to blame. According to several recent studies, the presence of sex hormones appears to be neccessary to develop complications typical of the adult type II diabetes (see http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read,3,534.html)