O.K. This is the news out today, according to CNN. Being 25 pounds overweight does not appear to raise your risk of dying from cancer or heart disease, says a new government study that seems to vindicate Grandma’s claim that a few extra pounds won’t kill you.
Generally speaking, if you’re 30 pounds or more over the normal weight for your height, you’re considered obese.
Released just a few weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday when Americans typically overeat, the findings might comfort some who cannot seem to lose those last 15 pounds. And they hearten proponents of a theory that it is possible to be “fit and fat.
BUT…”The news is not all good:
Overweight people do have a higher chance of dying from diabetes and kidney disease.
And people who are obese — generally those more than 30 pounds overweight for their height — have a higher risk of death from a variety of ills, including some cancers and heart disease.
However, having a little extra weight actually seemed to help people survive some illnesses — results that baffled several leading health researchers.
This is going to do for overweight people what the studies about drinking and health do for those of us who have a couple glasses of wine…vindicate them! What about the thousands of studies which show that being overweight? I can tell you this, my loved ones will take this information and use it to justify their decision not to exercise. I think it’s a slippery slope. Once someone starts to gain weight, it doesn’t take much to go over the edge to obesity. Technically, that’s just 30 lbs. overweight…