Is Being Fat Good For You?

[BTS]

IS BEING FAT GOOD FOR YOU?



Hold it, is it OK to be fat or not?



I'm confused.



Last year at this time the federal government said that 400,000 people died each year in this country because they were fat.



And because it was the government, of course, we believed it. Why would the government lie to us? How could scientists on the government payroll get it wrong?



Anyway, some smart people heard that 400,000 dead porkers number and thought it was too high. So the government came out with another number.



The people at the Centers for Disease Control said that, actually, it was 365,000 Americans who eat themselves to death each year. It worked out, conveniently, to 1,000 a day. Except on leap year when, apparently, the hippos take a day off.



All through this, the CDC -- along with more activists and lawyers than you can shake a mozzarella stick at -- have been hopping up and down calling obesity the biggest public health crisis facing the country. They have also called for immediate government intervention to fix this crisis.



I'm not sure, maybe they want the government to limit the number of bacon strips you can put on a cheeseburger.



Anyway, the sky is falling and we know it's true because the federal government says so.





Which brings us to yesterday.



Yesterday there was an article in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" that said that, actually, there are just 25,000 people who die of obesity each year. That's something like one-fourteenth of what the government had previously said the number was. Which makes you think our taxpayer dollars are going to people who pull things out of the butts.



And i'm not just talking gerbils.



But it gets even more interesting. In addition to taking far, far fewer lives than we'd thought, it turns out that America's swelling waistband is actually good for us.



It turns out that people who are "modestly" overweight are less likely to die than people who are the "ideal" weight. Put another way, being a pudge is good for you.



If you consider staying alive to be a good thing.



And I do.



There is another number you need to see. It is 86,000. That's the number of lives that are supposedly saved each year because people are "modestly" overweight.



Who knew that? When did they tell us that being a little bit over the perfect weight was good for us?



Anyway, being overweight saves the lives of 86,000 each year.



It's even higher if you include the people on "Survivor."



So, being fat costs us 25,000 net lives a year and saves us 86,000.



In light of that fact, if somebody offers you some cheesecake, you better take it. In light of that fact, why are we getting so worked up about our weight? It seems to do more good than harm. And, either way, the numbers are still small -- in a nation of 280 million -- and don't seem to be any sort of "public health crisis" one way or the other.



Which makes me think this whole sky-is-falling routine is about something other than health. I suspect it's about money and power, the same two things that turned the government and the lawyers into the biggest profiteers in the cigarette industry. I think the tax man and the plaintiffs' attornies have their eyes on the vast amounts of money in the food industry and are figuring out ways to get their hands on it in the guise of "helping" people.



I'm not saying we should eat poorly or foolishly. And I think daily vigorous exercise is a key part of life. And I do know that maintaining a proper weight, so you feel good and look good, is very important.



But this hysteria of the last few years is not justified.



Yes, make wise choices. Yes, spend less time on the couch. No, don't turn into a blimp. No, don't eat what you shouldn't.



But don't fall for this nonsense either.



You know what you need. You know what feels good to your body. You decide what's best for you.



And if you need expert advice, I'd suggest you avoid the federal government.



- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005





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