and thus is the controversy

please note that the numbers for this new 'study' were obtained by driving in a mobile 'lab' and measuring people -- so the populations that they are getting the numbers from can be greatly effected by the study group. That is if they did this in, say, Warren Robins, GA they are going to get a different rating than if they went to downtown New Orleans.

so what would be the difference? Warren Robins is near an Air Force base, so you are more likely to run into former Airmen and their families .... where New Orleans is the food capital of the world, you are more likely to run into people who grew up on some really good tasting food.

Obese Americans now outweigh the merely overweight U.S. Reuters:

"Obesity and overweight are calculated using a formula called body mass index. BMI is equal to weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. Someone with a BMI of 25 to 29 is classified as overweight, 30 to 40 counts as obese and people with BMIs of 40 or more are morbidly obese."

it takes height & weight to determine 'obesity' ... it doesn't take into consideration muscle mass at all - which weighs 4 times as much as fat - that means if you weigh 180lbs of lean meat you are healthier than if you are 180lbs of, sorry to be blunt, fat.

but the stats don't touch that one bit.

then too the 'impacts' on health are not based on any real science -- they are based on items like this ....

a man shows up at the hospital with chest pains, his weight is 200lbs ... he is overweight ... therefore overweight causes heart troubles -- never mind what the man was doing at the time the chest pains started .... never mind whether it is a heart attack or a panic attack .... never mind any number of factors -==- the stats will equate the two.

its like "its cold in the winter ... you shovel snow in the winter ... heart attacks might occur while shoveling .... therefore Winter causes Heart Attacks" ~~~NO~~~ its lack of exercise before starting to move such a heavy thing as snow (and there is evidence that there are more heart attacks brought on by shoveling heavy snow as opposed to light snow) ... and there is also the age factor which you never hear of either.

no -- they have got to stop making these 'causal effect' studies. they have used it from everything from weight to carcinogens to second hand smoke (with that one they never even took into consideration other environmental conditions, btw).

or if they did do a 'study' they based it on mice studies - they use mice because they have rather quick generations, but what they don't tell people is that they expose these mice to levels which would rarely, if at all, equate to levels a human would be exposed to.

I'm just saying that BMI is not the begin all or end all at determining health ... and health officials should know better than that.