![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firecathttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/health/study-suggests-lower-death-risk-for-the-overweight.html
This article reports on a metastudy that finds people in the category of BMI currently labeled "overweight" have a lower mortality risk than people in the "normal BMI" category.
They should report this as if it were good news, right? But it seems to scare the writer and commenters. The language is unbelievable. Well, it would be unbelievable if I hadn't already seen it so many times in other articles.
"But don’t scrap those New Year’s weight-loss resolutions and start gorging on fried Belgian waffles or triple cheeseburgers"! (Because there are only two modes of approaching food: weight-loss resolutions or GORGING ON TRIPLE FRIED WAFFLE CHEESEBURGERS.)
"overweight people need not panic unless they have other indicators of poor health"! (Because if you do have "other indicators of poor health," then PANIC is clearly called for.)
(And I saw you slip in that implication that overweight is an indicator of poor health, even though the study showed the opposite.)
"if indicators are normal, there’s no reason to 'go on a crash diet'"! (A doctor said that. Because two out of three doctors recommend crash dieting as a superb way to treat your body if you have abnormal "indicators.")
And of course the article speculates that this result is an artifact of how overweight people are "more likely to be in your doctor's office." (Because no one ever denies overweight people health insurance or tells them their hangnail will get better if they go away and lose 50 pounds.)
I have to say, though, that I'm in favor of spreading the meme "Still, death is not everything."
This article reports on a metastudy that finds people in the category of BMI currently labeled "overweight" have a lower mortality risk than people in the "normal BMI" category.
They should report this as if it were good news, right? But it seems to scare the writer and commenters. The language is unbelievable. Well, it would be unbelievable if I hadn't already seen it so many times in other articles.
"But don’t scrap those New Year’s weight-loss resolutions and start gorging on fried Belgian waffles or triple cheeseburgers"! (Because there are only two modes of approaching food: weight-loss resolutions or GORGING ON TRIPLE FRIED WAFFLE CHEESEBURGERS.)
"overweight people need not panic unless they have other indicators of poor health"! (Because if you do have "other indicators of poor health," then PANIC is clearly called for.)
(And I saw you slip in that implication that overweight is an indicator of poor health, even though the study showed the opposite.)
"if indicators are normal, there’s no reason to 'go on a crash diet'"! (A doctor said that. Because two out of three doctors recommend crash dieting as a superb way to treat your body if you have abnormal "indicators.")
And of course the article speculates that this result is an artifact of how overweight people are "more likely to be in your doctor's office." (Because no one ever denies overweight people health insurance or tells them their hangnail will get better if they go away and lose 50 pounds.)
I have to say, though, that I'm in favor of spreading the meme "Still, death is not everything."