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When it comes to the obesity debate, however, it never takes long for rhetoric to outpace the science. And sure enough, a group called the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) seized on the CDC study last week to launch an ad campaign dismissing America's obesity "epidemic," "problem," "threat" and "issue" as mere "hype...
Lost in all the ideological to-and-fro was any sense of what exactly the CDC study found and what it actually means. Basically, its authors concluded from three recent health surveys of the U.S. population that being obese--as well as being underweight--is associated with a greater number of deaths than being of normal weight. Researchers will argue about just how much the results are skewed by thin people who are losing weight because they are dying, but the basic findings are undisputed...
...What the CDC scientists did not conclude--despite the many sound bites to the contrary--is that a little excess weight will help you live longer or that plump folks are any healthier. It's true that in the study there were slightly fewer deaths associated with people who were overweight than with the people of normal weight, but the numbers varied so little, says lead author Katherine Flegal, that the difference is not what scientists would call significant...
...what's all the fuss about? The latest CDC paper estimated that 112,000 extra deaths each year are associated with obesity. That's a pretty big number, but a year ago, a different group of researchers at the CDC, using older data, put the toll for poor diet and physical inactivity even higher, at 400,000 deaths. Earlier this year, they admitted that they had made a mistake in their calculations and that the correct number was closer to 365,000 deaths. "It's really an evolving science," says Dr. George Mensah, acting director of the National Center...
Fixating on the latest death counts from the CDC may get you a few chuckles and some edgy ads. But that doesn't change the facts that Americans are growing heavier and that obesity-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes are on the rise. Some of the more responsible leaders of the food industry are trying to do something about obesity in the U.S., and they will tell you--but only if you don't name names--that campaigns that try to dismiss the problem as hype are doing them more harm than good. --With reporting by Coco Masters...