The Dieting Study
Flegal set out to compare weight with life span and attempted to include as many people as possible in the dieting study.
“We searched all the literature, thousands of articles, found almost 100 articles with 3 million people, that really addressed this question head-on,” Flegal says.
According to Flegal’s findings, being a little overweight is associated with a lower risk of death; however, the risk is only lowered by six percent. Still, Flegal says the study lends new information to the field.
“It’s statistically significant,” Flegal tells NPR.
So what’s the reason for heavier people living longer?
“Maybe heavier people present to the doctor earlier, or get screened more often,” she said. “Heavier people may be more likely to be treated according to guidelines, or fat itself may be cardioprotective, or someone who is heavier might be more resilient and better able to stand a shock to their system.”
Critics disagree with finding
Some medical professionals aren’t willing to embrace Flegal’s findings.
“Our article got called rubbish and ludicrous,” Flegal says, “so it really opens you to lots of criticism. I discovered much to my sorrow that this is kind of a flashpoint for people.”
Dr. William Cefalu, chief and professor of the section of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University says the study doesn’t consider other contributing factors.
“There are other factors that play a role in overall health,” Cefalu tells HealthDay. “Body mass index simply is a parameter; it doesn’t take into consideration family history, it doesn’t take into consideration smoking, fitness, cholesterol and other factors that should be considered beyond body mass index.”
