Forget EverythingYou’ve Ever Heard About Being Overweight

Well, this certainly changes things. So now, The Journal of the American medical Association has come out with a brand new study on how being overweight shortens one's life. We all knew that, didn't we? Yeah, well...Turns out they were wrong about that and the results indicate just the opposite.

Grab an order of cracklins' and read on...

The research, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested the overweight were less likely to die prematurely than people with a "healthy" weight. The study was quick to point out that being "severely underweight or overweight will cut life expectancy."

The study focused on nearly 3 million people and compared death rates with a barometer of sorts known as Body Mass Index or BMI.

A healthy BMI is considered to be above 18.5 and below 25. However, overweight people (with a BMI between 25 and 30) were 6% less likely to die early than those considered to have a healthy weight, the study reports.

Mildly obese people (BMI between 30 and 35) were no more likely to die prematurely than people with a healthy BMI.

Okay, so what is the explanation for this sudden change of direction? Well, one possible explanation is that overweight people get  medical treatment for conditions such as high blood pressure, more quickly or the extra weight helping people survive being severely ill in hospital.

Here is another thing to consider in this report (say, do have any of those cracklin's left?)

The study deals only with mortality rates, In other words, it doesn't cover various and sundry health problems brought on by obesity. So, while you may not die any younger, you could still have to deal with a world of weight related health problems.

They couldn't have come out with this study before Thanksgiving?