Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Despite the recent study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging Americans to keep obesity under control.

• CNN.com – CDC chief tries to deflate obesity debate – Associated Press

They urge that the study is flawed because the data may have included subjects who were thin because of diseases, such as cancer or heart disease. Comparing death rates of people with diseases could have skewed the data, making thin people appear less healthy than overweight people. I suspect that subjects who were fat and had diseases were also included. If that is true, then their complaint is unimportant.

The most important thing is that we want to be healthy. Being slightly overweight doesn’t seem to negatively affect our health as much as they have been telling us for years, but everyone agrees about being obese. Negative effects from substantial obesity have been well documented.