YOU'RE OVERWEIGHT! does it always say that ? =[

[dbot]

N.Genckel said:

dbot said:

Demotruk said:

Most European countries have better health care systems than the US, they report well. People in the US just have a very different lifestyle than Europeans, one that tends towards being overweight.

The odd thing is, our definition of "overweight" relates to normalcy, not to the health effects. Recent studies have shown it's better to be overweight than normal weight, and it's worse to be underweight than obese, in terms of life expectancy. This is likely due to the fact that while there are health negatives from being overweight, having extra weight increases your chances of surviving many illnesses.

 

(I say this as someone who is underweight)

I vehemently disagree with your first point regarding the quality of health care systems, but will not derail the thread to discuss it.  My point the obesity data is somewhat misleading because very few countries (such as the US and UK) report data based on actual measurements.  Third World countries under report their data because they are using estimates.

 

You can't disagree with facts. But it does look like Obama is going to try and change that, so good on him.

Fat chance.