Word: overweightness
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...obesity epidemic, Campos argues, amounts to a relatively small across-the-board weight gain pushing large numbers of people from the top of the ideal-weight category into overweight, and from the top of overweight into obese-subtle shifts, in other words, rather than alarming spikes. Support for that view can be found in creeping mean BMI readings for New Zealand men: they've gone from 25.5 in 1977 to 26.9 in 2003. The starting point for overweight used to be 27, until health authorities-following the W.H.O.'s lead-lowered it in the late 1990s...
...happened, most doctors would say, is that better treatment, broader use of drugs for prevention, as well as less cigarette smoking, mean that despite rising average weight, fewer people are dying from cardiovascular disease. This is small cause for celebration, says Sydney University's Booth. "People who are overweight are more likely to suffer serious, debilitating, chronic diseases before they actually die. We've become quite good at keeping people alive in the presence of these diseases, but they have a really poor life in the meantime, and that doesn't show up in studies like Flegal...
...itself pathological, what's driving the obesity panic? In the same article, the authors point out that many of the world's leading obesity researchers who've been involved in defining overweight and obesity have received funding from the pharmaceutical and weight-loss industries; some manage weight-loss clinics themselves and so have "an economic interest in defining unhealthy weight as broadly as possible and overstating the hazards of obesity." While stressing he's not an obesity expert, David Henry, professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle, notes the potential for disease mongering among the overweight...
...cancer epidemiologist, is in Seattle studying risk factors for a rare type of esophageal cancer whose incidence has risen in Australia recently. His conclusion-not yet reviewed by peers-is that "obese people have consistently raised risks of esophageal adenocarcinoma and that this risk is apparent even for modestly overweight people." On the more general issue of the risks of rising BMI, Whiteman says: "A few extra pounds is probably not going to hurt people and may even be advantageous to long-term survival. The problem is that most Australians carry considerably more that just a few extra pounds...
...Nonetheless, a little perspective is overdue. Authors Gard and Wright observe that despite the insistence of many scientists that overweight and obesity are diseases, other people can see that it's quite possible to be healthy, happy and large. "Perhaps," they write, "even without the benefit of a scientific education, people sense that the pathways that lead from overweight and obesity to premature death are extremely indirect ... that food should be enjoyed, not agonized over. Perhaps they see that, given the health challenges that currently face different parts of the world, describing entire Western populations as sick seems...