Study: Being obese can take years off your life

Study: Being obese can take years off your life

news.yahoo.com

Being obese can take years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking, a new study says. British researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed 57 studies mostly in Europe and North America, following nearly one million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 100,000 of those people died.

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Well, hear's another study claiming that obesity, especially morbid obesity, can be as dangerous as smoking.

I found this to be very interesting:

Peto and colleagues found that people who were moderately fat, with a BMI from 30 to 35, lost about three years of life. People who were morbidly fat — those with a BMI above 40 — lost about 10 years off their expected lifespan, similar to the effect of lifelong smoking

So if you're BMI caps 40 you're basically going to be doing as much damage to it as a smoker would if they smoked their entire life!

Not only are the health implications clear here but there's also the burden the obese and morbidly obese are going to put on the healthcare system of their parent country.

Also, everyone accepts sin taxes on cigarrettes and alcohol, so if becoming obese and morbidly obese are proven now to be as harmful as smoking, then is a tax on products that contribute to obesity acceptable in order to justify the cost of treatment for obesity related illnesses?

My personal belief is that the Western diet is ridiculously unhealthy and damaging to the human body. Our processed foods and dependency on high fat/protein diets is what's causing this obesity epidemic, and in order to ensure the health of future generations, we need to be proactive in making sure everyone lives a healthier lifestyle. If that means taxing ridiculously sugary drinks (there are about 3 TABLESPOONS of sugar in a can of coke, and it's High Fructose Corn Syrup to boot) and other junk foods and crappy processed things in our diet, then so be it.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok, not to flame your thread. But it seems like i see a new article on how obesity effects health every day!
Who would have thought being very over weight could cause a shorter life? clogged arteries, overworked heart, overworked joints, bad circulation, low energy, all on top of unhealthy food intake! It doesn't take a whole scientific study to figure out being very fat is bad for your health. If you can be morbidly obese, meaning you can die because of how fat you are, than weighing 100 under the morbid mark won't do you any better.
"omg being really fat can cause a multitude of bad health effects? NO WAY!!"

reply to post by patent98310


Well actually there have been a few recent studies recently that contradict the obesity > harmful health link, so it's been kind of a back and forth issue for some people.

That being said, I agree with your general conclusions