April 20, 2005

NOW YOU'RE TALKIN':

Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says (GINA KOLATA, 4/20/05, NY Times)

People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.

The researchers - statisticians and epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - also found that increased risk of death from obesity was seen for the most part in the extremely obese, a group constituting only 8 percent of Americans.

And being very thin, even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to stem from disease, caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers said.

The new study, considered by many independent scientists to be the most rigorous yet on the effects of weight, controlled for factors like smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a well-known method that has been used to predict cancer risk. [...]

The study did not explain why overweight appeared best as far as mortality was concerned.


Who cares why? Just pass the bucket of KFC.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2005 2:55 PM
Comments

Don't stop there, pour some hot sauce mixed liberally with butter over that baby.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 20, 2005 4:22 PM

I thought scientists were able to greatly extend lifespan by reducing animal's caloric intake? This is all so confusing. Now pass the chicken, please.

Posted by: Pat H at April 20, 2005 5:23 PM

It's very simple why this is true. The CDC's statistics underestimate how much a healthy human being should weigh. That's why they claim so many people are overweight.

Posted by: Brandon at April 20, 2005 5:36 PM

RE: KFC

You're supposed to eat the skin, right?

Posted by: ghostcat at April 20, 2005 7:30 PM

Just before you break open the bones and suck out the marrow....

Posted by: oj at April 20, 2005 7:36 PM

That's for kangaroos.

Posted by: ghostcat at April 20, 2005 7:53 PM

Easily explained: Married people live longer. We all know what happened to our guts (and to our wive's b.... no, better not to go there; fools rush in and all that) when we wed.

Posted by: Jason Johnson at April 20, 2005 9:16 PM

Re: His-Gut/Her-Butt

And it usually happens in that order. Post-hoc fallacy? Perhaps.

Posted by: ghostcat at April 20, 2005 9:24 PM

So the entire machinery of government is geared up to inflict itself on a suffering people because they don't know how to eat?

When are they going to mind their own businesses and leave us alone/

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at April 20, 2005 11:46 PM

Here in Chicago at the various Harold's Chicken Shacks on the south side, they give you two pieces of white bread with your order -- 1/2 chicken is the usual order.

My preferred way of eating it is to save the extra bits of skin that tend to come loose and then make a sandwich out of them with the white bread, hot sauce liberally applied.

Mmmm. Fried chicken skin sandwiches.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 21, 2005 1:22 AM

Mmmm, Harolds.

Now you've done it, Jim. I'm going to be jonesing all day for deep fried greasy chicken with hot sauce -- a craving that just can't be truly satisfied in western Massachusetts.

Then drive down to Stoney Island for some Leon's. Oh. I've got to, um, go now. Um, bye.

Posted by: David Cohen at April 21, 2005 7:34 AM

Fried chicken and waffles - Roscoe's. Pasadena.

Posted by: jim hamlen at April 21, 2005 10:17 PM
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