Weighty Issues

Contrary to what the I'm-smarter-than-thou types at those centers for stuff supposedly in our best interest have been telling us, it turns out that you can (occasionally) have fries with that!

According to research done by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- which just happens to be the most thorough research on the subject done to date, when a sensible diet results in a few pounds over what those charts tell you is your ideal weight and you find yourself :::gasp!::: :::shudder!::: "overweight," as long as you're not obese that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

The most hilarious (and, therefore, the most enjoyable reading I've come across on this topic) has to be David Brooks' Living Longer is the Best Revenge, an op-ed piece in The New York Times. Brooks reminds us that "[t]he release of a report in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicating that overweight people actually live longer than normal-weight people represents an important moment in the history of world civilization. It is the moment when we realize that Mother Nature - unlike Ivy League admissions committees - doesn't like suck-ups."

Fat and Happy is another op-ed piece about this topic, this one by John Tierney, who says: "Porkers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your diets!"

It seems that everyone at The New York Times wants to weigh in on this issue: Editorial: You Can Be Too Thin, After All

Once you've laughed about the subject, you might want to take a serious (pun intended) look at some information on the issue:

Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says

FULL TEXT - JAMA: Excess Deaths Associated With Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity

Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says, The New York Times

Related Information:

EXTRACT - JAMA: Deaths Attributable to Obesity

ABSTRACT: Secular Trends in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors According to Body Mass Index in US Adults