A new study has added to the evidence that when it comes to longevity, being healthy is more important than being thin.Researchers at Toronto’s York University and other institutions looked at data from 5,453 obese men and 771 obese women who took part in the ongoing Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study in Dallas. For comparison, they also examined data from more than 23,000 normal-weight people in the same study. They grouped the obese individuals into four categories, or “stages,” based on their.........
overall health and whether they had risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, or a mental-health condition.
Obese people who had moderate or severe risk factors or coexisting illnesses had a substantially greater risk of dying during the study’s average follow-up of roughly 16 years—from either heart disease or other causes—than their normal-weight counterparts. But those who were obese but had few or no health issues had no greater risk of dying than people of normal weight, and in fact had a slightly lower mortality risk overall. The finding challenges the traditional thinking that excess weight alone is a health problem that needs to be treated, and suggests instead that it’s the lifestyle behaviors and co-occurring risk factors that often accompany obesity that account for its health risks. For example, people in the less-healthy obese cohort were less likely to eat adequate fruits and vegetables, had lower cardiorespiratory fitness, and were more likely to have cycled between higher and lower weights in the past than their obese but healthy peers.
Bottom line: This is but the latest study to find that unless obesity is severe (which is never healthy, no matter what), fitness matters more than fatness when it comes to longevity. Being svelte might look good, but it’s healthy habits—exercising, eating healthful foods, eschewing junk food, and not smoking—that can help you live well and longer.
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