Excellent interview with Linda Bacon about "Health at Every Size"

[sarahmichigan]

http://medjournalwatch.blogspot.com/2007/08/interview-with-linda-bacon-on-weight.html

excerpt:
CB: You disagree with the majority of weight experts. They tell us that overweight is one of the leading causes of premature death, for instance from heart attacks, but also from diabetes and other diseases. Why do you disagree?

LB: I disagree because I have looked at the evidence. Reputable studies, published in well-respected, peer-reviewed journals, actually show that people in the "overweight" category live longer than those in the "normal" weight category.

CB: And what makes you sure that you are right and they are wrong?

LB: My experience from having worked closely with many obesity researchers who are more conventionally-minded than me is that they are so strongly mired in their assumptions, that they don't look at the evidence. Those that willingly engage, change their beliefs. The evidence is quite convincing.


x-posted all over the damn place

Comments

[sylo-tode.livejournal.com]

Has anybody seriously asked why we tend to gain weight as we grow older? I'm not talking about the scientific explanations of lowered metabolism and stuff like that. I'm talking about why our metabolisms slow down.

It seems to me that there's a (philosophically and physiologically) rational reason why we gain weight as we grow older. Maybe, biologically speaking, we should be gaining weight as we get older.

[firecat]

Maybe, biologically speaking, we should be gaining weight as we get older.

Given that "overweight" older people live longer than "ideal weight" ones, I think you're on to something.

[pastry-i-make.livejournal.com]

She should really change her last name