November 08, 2007

Study: A little extra weight not deadly

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- 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."

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.

(Click CNN for the rest.)

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Yeah, yeah, I was just trying to rationalize my love for food, so sue me! But seriously, I did take a Body Mass Index test which was available recently on the NYT web site. I got a score of 25, which means I'm still pretty fit, o ha!

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