Overweight and Obesity…is it Really Unhealthy?

Physicians, health professionals, and society constantly attribute overweight and obesity to unhealthy lifestyle and increased risk of health complications. Despite this ‘medical’ conclusion research is finding that being overweight and obese (grade 1) does not negatively affect your health. In a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association studying over all mortality rate with individuals BMI index found that grade 1 obesity (BMI of 30-<35) overall was not associated with higher mortality, and normal (BMI of 18.5-<25) as well as overweight (BMI of 25-<30) was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality. My thought…possibly does out society not have a ‘obesity epidemic’ but a weight bias?

This stat lets us see how the U.S. compares to other countries…

“The most recent data from the United States show that almost 40% of adult men and almost 30% of adult women fall into the overweight category with a BMI of 25 to less than 30. Comparable figures for Canada are 44% of men and 30% of women and for England are 42% of men and 32% of women.”

So our society has a weight bias…is this even rooted in facts? The answer may not be as clear as you think.

Link to entire Research Article