"According to the United States government, nearly 7 out of 10 American adults weigh too much. (In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorized 74 percent of men and 65 percent of women as either overweight or obese.) "
As user92 states, the article was written by a lawyer who has apparently written a good deal on the subject on obesity. I completely disagree with his views, and with this article, but I am curious as to what his motivations are.
When the leading cause of death in our country is something other than cardiovascular disease, I'll be more receptive to this kind of talk. Even if we were to indulge the author and assume the current definition of obesity is too harsh, that your BMI can be as high as 35 without an increase in chance of death, I would still argue that people in the United States need to be skinnier - from a mental health standpoint. I don't like the idea of a country of people who are slaves to their appetites & are convinced it's not mentally harmful to overindulge on a regular basis. We already consume too much as is; why should we be made to feel like it's totally ok to do so?Don’t expect those who have made their careers on fomenting panic to understand that our current definition of “normal weight” makes absolutely no sense.
I find it absurd that the author closes with the quote you pulled yet has this buried in the middle: So if there's "no reason to believe" that these weak correlations mean anything, why insist that our current definitions make "absolutely no sense"? This is just bad journalism all around.In other words, there is no reason to believe that the trivial variations in mortality risk observed across an enormous weight range actually have anything to do with weight or that intentional weight gain or loss would affect that risk in a predictable way.
Agreed, while it may not present a greater chance of death, it does invariably present a greater strain on resources. What the author seems to be saying is that a society of people the size of the humans in "Wall-E" is acceptable.
This week the media is saying we should all not fear having a little bit of fat, and then next week they will be giving diet tips. Just be yourself, if you realize you want to be an even healthier version of yourself then so be it, or not.
I once read an article suggesting that people who were slightly overweight developed an immune system that was more resistant to problems associated with obesity. Essentially, if your blood vessels are slightly burdened with fat, this will encourage your heart to beat more vigorously, which strengthens your heart and thereby reduces the risk of experiencing a heart attack.