This is from a Tara Parker-Pope article in The New York Times. It is better to be fat and fit than skinny and unfit.
Half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are "metabolically healthy." That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of "good" cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.
At the same time, about one out of four slim people – those who fall into the "healthy" weight range – actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity.
This blog is fast becoming the go-to site on obesity. Perhaps that's because I have a new Assistant who is really into healthy lifestyles. Previous posts are here and here. What's new:
Los Angeles is considering banning all new fast-food restaurants in a 32-mile area that is home to its fattest residents. But since there are already 400 restaurants that will be grandfathered in the zone, there is little danger of extreme withdrawal symptoms [link].
More serious is New York City (home of nanny Mayor Bloomberg), which is banning transfats in restaurants. Going forward, you will have to buy your own lard in the grocery store.
Neil Trautwein says the National Restaurant Association (which represents fast food outlets) doesn't want you to be fat [link]. It does want you to buy their food, however.
My daughter Kara is an investor in fast food restaurants. Her advice: If you are going to succumb anyway, try Popeye's, Burger King and Taco Bell-preferably in the Southeast.
To live longer, eat 30% less. At least this works for mice. [link]
Contradicting an earlier Dutch study, a new study finds that overweight people have higher lifetime health care costs after all. So instead of getting a lifetime discount on their private health insurance and Medicare premiums, the obese should pay a bit more. But not that much more. Just eyeballing it, I would assess the fat tax at $300 per excess pound over a lifetime. That's less than 2 cents per excess pound per day of adult life — roughly the cost of an M & M.
A new Dutch study finds that even though obese people die earlier than their thinner, fitter cohorts, their lifetime health costs are lower ($371k vs. $417k). The healthy folks eventually die of something – cancer, Alzheimer's, etc. – and run up higher lifetime medical bills.
News of this study caused me to miss not a single step in my otherwise untroubled life. But all those nosy Parker paternalists who want to pry into every aspect of our lives and order everybody around must be unnerved. Fat taxes are out. Fat subsidies are in.
[Psst. Don't tell a soul. Researchers got the same results for smoking (only $326k).]
