Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Is being overweight, over-rated? Findings stun food fascists..

In an article in today's Houston Chronicle:

Associated Press

CHICAGO — 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 today 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.

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(emphasis mine)


This news has to be as sonorous to these folks as Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem; not to mention all the trial lawyers who have now lost a ton of opportunities to line their pockets with the proceeds of frivolous lawsuits. Perhaps the states' attorneys general who were successful in shaking down big tobacco can now sue McDonald's for a different reason: For making people live longer and thus becoming more of a drain on our social security system.

At any rate, it serves these clowns right for badmouthing Mexican food!