Lower mortality Moderate Overweight lives around 4 years longer

Thickness today has a lower mortality than normal weight
Numerous scientific studies have shown that overweight and obesity are unhealthy. Nevertheless, a new study from Denmark shows that fat people today live longer than slim ones. The researchers have evaluated data from over 100,000 citizens.

Being fat is unhealthy
According to research, overweight costs many years of life. Who weighs too much, therefore, has a higher risk of secondary or concomitant diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis), lipid metabolism disorders, coronary heart disease such as heart attack to certain cancers. Three out of four people develop such sequelae. On the other hand, a recent study showed that overweight people are not necessarily unhealthier. The Body Mass Index (BMI) says little about our health, according to scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles. And Swedish researchers now report that fat lives even longer than lean today.

While it has long been known that being overweight is harmful to health, a new study has shown that calves live longer today than lean ones. (Image: BillionPhotos.com/fotolia.com)

Obese have a lower mortality rate than Lean
According to a new study, overweight people today have a lower mortality rate than normal weight. According to study author Børge G. Nordestgaard of the Copenhagen University Hospital, the reason for this change is not clear. For the study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), data from more than 100,000 people in Denmark were evaluated. These were examined in the years 1976 to 1978, 1991 to 1994 and from 2003 to 2013 on their mortality. Various health risks such as tobacco consumption were taken into account.

Optimal BMI increased over the years
The normal weight is determined by the body mass index (BMI). From a BMI of 30, one speaks of obesity (obesity). That would be at a height of 1.70 meters 86.5 kilograms. The BMI can be calculated by dividing the body weight in kilograms by the square of the height in meters. At a BMI between 25 and 30, a person is considered overweight and over 30 as obese (obese). The current study showed that people lived the longest in the 1970s with a BMI of 23.7 (equivalent to 78 kilograms, 1.83 in size). In the early 1990s, the optimal BMI was 24.6 - which equals five kilos more with the same height. And in the range from 2003 to 2013, the optimal BMI even increased to 27, which corresponds to a body height of 1.83 a good 90 kilograms - that is twelve kilograms more than in the 1970s.

Rethink definition of overweight
The study also revealed that obese people in the 1970s had a higher mortality rate than normal weight people, but lived just as long since the 2000s. According to the researchers must be redefined based on the findings, where obesity begins. According to a report from the ScienceDaily website, Nordestgaard said, "If this finding is confirmed in other studies, it would suggest that WHO needs to revise its current definitions of obesity based on pre-1990s data "The scientist also pointed out that further investigation is needed to understand the reason for this change and its effects. The researchers also wrote that the results should not be interpreted as meaning that people no longer pay attention to a healthy diet. American and Canadian scientists came years ago to similar results as their Swedish counterparts. At the time, they also reported in the Journal of the Medical American Association (JAMA) that obese people live longer, according to a meta-study. However, the mortality risk for extreme obesity is increasing enormously. (Ad)