tasty antecedent

August 22, 2006 3:28 PM

Being a little overweight can kill you.
posted by The Jesse Helms (89 comments total)

Where's the hurfhurfbuttereater tag?
posted by peep at 3:31 PM on August 22, 2006

mathowie will not be happy.
posted by dios at 3:34 PM on August 22, 2006

They're using BMI as the standard when it doesn't take into account muscle vs. fat?
posted by null terminated at 3:35 PM on August 22, 2006

Uh, huh. This article says the exact opposite:

"Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, say they have found that people with a BMI of 30-35 were at lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those whose BMI was below 20."

So being a little overweight is actually a positive thing according to that study.
posted by GuyZero at 3:36 PM on August 22, 2006

*gets in line to kick fat people*
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:37 PM on August 22, 2006

Oh man, I've been waiting to use this one...

posted by mullacc at 3:40 PM on August 22, 2006

If this were true, it would be detrimental my self-image. So it's obviously not.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:40 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

This FPP says nothing about being massively overweight being bad for you, so most of America will be okay.
posted by keswick at 3:41 PM on August 22, 2006

I knew a powerlifter who got lousy fitness evals because of his hight to weight ratio (even though he was mostly solid muscle). Kept having to attach “note: bp 500+ lbs” to his records.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:44 PM on August 22, 2006

Studies show that fat kids are three times more likely to be attacked by knife-wielding commandos.


posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:46 PM on August 22, 2006

I love that the kid keeps eating the candy bar even while his throat is being slashed.
posted by brain_drain at 3:50 PM on August 22, 2006

Worrying about every news report that something or the other will kill you...will kill you.

I intend to drop dead with a fork in my hand.
posted by bim at 3:51 PM on August 22, 2006

Ah, there's nowt that signals the demise of a thread like pederast zombie chubby-chasing faux-snuff.
posted by jack_mo at 3:52 PM on August 22, 2006

These meta-studies are all BS. If you look hard enough, you can make the statistics say anything you want. Sometimes I think the researchers who publish these common-sense mortality papers do it to get funding for the research they really want to do.

From GuyZero's link:

Other researchers agree and suggest that in a comparative study of BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist measure and hip measure, waist-to-hip was the best predictor of heart attack risk and BMI should be disregarded as a clinical and epidemiological measure of cardiovascular risk.

Good lord, you have to be kidding me. I propose that ring-finger-middle-digit-length-to-pre-dinner-platelet-count ratio is the best predictor of heart disease.

I work in research and sometimes even I think a few of these scientists should change careers and become hedge fund managers since they're so good at using weird methodology to spin their numbers.
posted by junesix at 3:56 PM on August 22, 2006

Lots of things kill you! Know what else kills you? Blowing a bunch of different guys. But you don't see anyone shoving that down your throat.
posted by dios at 3:58 PM on August 22, 2006

I probably wouldn't be overweight if I didn't like waffles so much.
posted by owhydididoit at 3:58 PM on August 22, 2006

Just remember what happened when the Future Doctors in Sleeper revived Woody Allen:

Dr. Melik: [puzzling over list of items sold at Miles' old health-food store] ... wheat germ, organic honey and... tiger's milk.

Dr. Aragon: Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.

Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?

Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.

Dr. Melik: Incredible!
posted by luriete at 3:59 PM on August 22, 2006

If getting triple-bypass surgery can't convince a person to eat healthy and exercise, I'm not sure how effective a bunch of scientists who routinely denounce each other's research will.

Sorry just had to get all that out. /rant
posted by junesix at 3:59 PM on August 22, 2006

also

Miles Monroe: Where am I anyhow, I mean, what happened to everybody, where are all my friends?

Dr. Aragon: You must understand that everyone you knew in the past has been dead nearly two hundred years.

Miles Monroe: But they all ate organic rice!
posted by luriete at 4:00 PM on August 22, 2006

Other things that can kill you:

Skydiving.
Driving cars.
Playing with guns.
Not eating enough.
SARS.
TENS.
Smoking.
Not sleeping.
Massive Brain Explosion.

I could probably keep going for a while.
posted by dios at 4:01 PM on August 22, 2006

Lots of things kill you! Know what else kills you? Blowing a bunch of different guys. But you don't see anyone shoving that down your throat.

Wrong on both counts, boyo.
posted by me & my monkey at 4:02 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Still waiting for the study that compares fat people with thin people who used to be fat, or thin people who were never fat with thin people who used to be fat.
posted by transona5 at 4:04 PM on August 22, 2006

Wrong? It was a joke. And fyi: I watched a thing in Health class about a promiscous girl who died from STDs so its probably not wrong.
posted by dios at 4:05 PM on August 22, 2006

from NPR's Marketplace today:

Paying the price for obesity
A study released today suggests that obesity has been a major factor driving Medicare spending growth in the last 15 years.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 4:05 PM on August 22, 2006

How long do people want to live anyway? Living long seems to be an obsession in this society, but most of the really elderly are a burden on society, spending most of their time cooped up in assisted living homes. Should we not re-evaluate the festishization of longevity purely for longevity's sake? I think the more compelling question is how to live longer without going senile, getting alzheimer's, losing one's memory and so forth. There seems little point in being a centernarian if one has lost one's mental faculties two decades before that time.
posted by Azaadistani at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2006

Life is terminal.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2006

OH SNAPES! BREATHING LINKED TO DEATH!
posted by stenseng at 4:10 PM on August 22, 2006

not only is life terminal, it is sexually transmitted!!111! ZOMG!@
posted by keswick at 4:11 PM on August 22, 2006

Well I've a BMI of 27. 5'10, 189 pounds. I could do with losing some weight admittedly, but a fair proportion of that is muscle... oh well, I should make more of it muscle, then I can't complain.
posted by knapah at 4:11 PM on August 22, 2006

It's been proven that every single person who was ever born either died or will die at some point. Therefore birth is the ultimate cause of death.

Seriously, you're only losing years at the end of life anyway, and those are the adult-diaper years anyway.
posted by clevershark at 4:15 PM on August 22, 2006

Azaadistani: Personally, I'd love to live forever, as long as I wasn't some basket-case old codger.

OTOH, I'm a fat man.
posted by Kickstart70 at 4:15 PM on August 22, 2006

Cthulhu and smoking will kill you faster:

(yes, I made that)
posted by Kickstart70 at 4:17 PM on August 22, 2006

Should we not re-evaluate the festishization of longevity purely for longevity's sake?

Dollars to death-bringing doughnuts, you're under 40, Azaadistani.

Then again, so am I. I'm hoping they've got that Alzheimer's thing all figured out by the time I hit 60.
posted by gurple at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2006

I'm hoping they've got that Alzheimer's thing all figured out by the time I hit 60.

They have. , and it's good news except the munchies make you fat.

Seriously, of all the crap Americans obsess over, this is the dumbest. Life is terminal. Enjoy your dinner while you can. And then get some freaking exercise.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:25 PM on August 22, 2006

Living long seems to be an obsession in this society, but most of the really elderly are a burden on society, spending most of their time cooped up in assisted living homes.

Dude, if I can make it to 72 healthy, active (at least mobile), clear-minded and alert, I will die one happy 72 year old motherfucker.
posted by Hypnic jerk at 4:29 PM on August 22, 2006

If it comes to that, I'll do us both. Let's just see that it doesn't. Here, I'd like to introduce you to a close personal friend of mine...
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:33 PM on August 22, 2006

/Aliens
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:35 PM on August 22, 2006

This is so unfair. I was in a perfectly healthy weight range while I still smoked. I quit and now I'm fat. Where's the justice?!?
posted by lekvar at 4:41 PM on August 22, 2006

Okay, somebody please tell me where that gif of the chubby kid getting commando-knifed came from.
posted by Stauf at 4:54 PM on August 22, 2006

You know what else can kill you? Bullets.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:00 PM on August 22, 2006

I mean Hitler! Crap.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:01 PM on August 22, 2006

dios writes "Lots of things kill you! Know what else kills you? Blowing a bunch of different guys. But you don't see anyone shoving that down your throat."

Ok, "shoving that down your throat" was an intentional choice of words, right?
posted by orthogonality at 5:05 PM on August 22, 2006

What about an Alien Hitler with bullets? That could definitely kill you.
posted by ob at 5:06 PM on August 22, 2006

No one gets out alive.

NO ONE.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:06 PM on August 22, 2006

What if Hitler fed you too many pancakes with way too much butter and syrup? Would it be the ensuing fatness that killed you, or would you be another of Hitler's victims?
posted by owhydididoit at 5:22 PM on August 22, 2006

Kickstart70 made me laugh.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:23 PM on August 22, 2006

"Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, say they have found that people with a BMI of 30-35 were at lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those whose BMI was below 20."

Of course they're going to say that -- they've got a vested intrerest. Look at the name of the clinic. Funded by Hellman's.
posted by adgnyc at 5:25 PM on August 22, 2006

Stauf -- It's from one of the best Mr. Show sketches, in which Buddist (sp?) monks have an end of the summer contest against the rich-kid fat camp across the lake. David Cross plays a slacker who helps the monks, and that gif is one of the biggest laughs in the show, but it's ruined for you now.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:29 PM on August 22, 2006

I think we can all agree that when a fat person dies, it is because they were fat. Am I right?
posted by jenovus at 5:35 PM on August 22, 2006

You can imagine that in CSI --

"Well, the three gunshot wounds to the head and the knife through the spleen were almost too obvious. Clearly this man died of congestive heart failure brought on by accumulation of cholesterol."
posted by clevershark at 5:45 PM on August 22, 2006

So in the end being a little overweight can kill you, but being a lot overweight is less dangerous. Well, I guess it's time to go for those éclairs.
posted by clevershark at 5:50 PM on August 22, 2006

The journalists who report on these studies should be locked in a room and forced to repeat "correlation does not equal causation" until... well probably forever, since they seem to be too stupid to absorb the concept.

What transona 5 said.

And also: "this is one of the first major studies to account for the factors of smoking and chronic illness, which can complicate efforts to figure out how much weight itself is responsible for early death."

Well that's nice, but did they control for stress (it's extremely stressful to live as a fat person -- particularly a fat woman -- in a society that reviles you)? Yo-yo dieting? Use of diet pills?

Why no, of course not. Because that might not yield the result they were looking for: more "data" to scare people with, to ensure that the diet industry continues raking in the bucks. You can't sell gastric bypass surgery or diet pills to someone who thinks that they're just fine the way they are.
posted by parrot_person at 5:52 PM on August 22, 2006

posted by Rhomboid at 5:55 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Gee, I wonder if stressing out about being overweight causes premature death?..
posted by clevershark at 6:10 PM on August 22, 2006

An alien Hitler with pancake fatness bullets would blow the minds of those CSI guys. They'd never figure that out no matter how many tape recorders William Petersen talked into.
posted by Smedleyman at 6:23 PM on August 22, 2006

death by heart attack is cheaper than a long slow lingering death by alzheimers.
posted by Megafly at 6:39 PM on August 22, 2006

that guy that beat anorexia did it by totally eating his feelings about the subject.
posted by phylum sinter at 6:48 PM on August 22, 2006

my sister gave me that same shirt. i'm 5'-9", 150 lbs. everyone keeps telling me to stop wearing the shirt, because it doesn't make sense. i still don't know what my sister was thinking.
posted by xmattxfx at 6:58 PM on August 22, 2006

Stauf -- It's from one of the best Mr. Show sketches, in which Buddist (sp?) monks have an end of the summer contest against the rich-kid fat camp across the lake. David Cross plays a slacker who helps the monks, and that gif is one of the biggest laughs in the show, but it's ruined for you now.

NOOOOOOO!!!

Ah well - thanks, Bookhouse. Still funny.
posted by Stauf at 6:59 PM on August 22, 2006

Oh, look, Hitler's Cross Eatery is right next door!
posted by owhydididoit at 7:12 PM on August 22, 2006

There was an article a few months ago in New Scientist which actually said that being a little overweight tended to lead to increased lifespans.

The main point being that if you got sick for a while, you didn't die because you had some reserves of fat to fall back on. I'll have to see if I can find it.
posted by tomble at 7:36 PM on August 22, 2006

Now that they've controlled for disease and smoking, I'd be curious to see a study that's also stratified by activity level/exercise habits.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:00 PM on August 22, 2006

My dad is 67. He just had a quadruple bypass, and has type II diabetes because he is overweight. His quality of life index is dropping rapidly. Trust me, you don't want his weight-induced health problems, and half of you are whistling past the graveyard.
posted by mecran01 at 8:20 PM on August 22, 2006

Trust me, you don't want his weight-induced health problems, and half of you are whistling past the graveyard.

You're pissing in the wind, trying to tell these tough guys they are whistling past the graveyard. Trust me on this one.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:51 PM on August 22, 2006

Since I am frightfully thin I welcome this SCIENCE!
posted by I Foody at 8:53 PM on August 22, 2006

He just had a quadruple bypass, and has type II diabetes because he is overweight.

Um...exactly how is quadruple bypass necessarily the result of being overweight? It isn't.

Both thin (like my old boss) and not so thin people might wind up with clogged arteries and find themselves undergoing a bypass.

High cholesterol problems can be hereditary. You might be of a "normal" weight but your cholesterol is off the charts because of your genes.
posted by bim at 8:54 PM on August 22, 2006

OHGODIMGONNADIEIBETTERSUESOMEBODYQUICK!!!
posted by fungible at 9:54 PM on August 22, 2006

Gargh.

Hasn't anyone heard of parasites?! Worms, people, worms make you THIN!
posted by porpoise at 10:55 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

it's extremely stressful to live as a fat person -- particularly a fat woman -- in a society that reviles you

Society IS fat people. This is America.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, say they have found that people with a BMI of 30-35 were at lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those whose BMI was below 20.

The fact that underweight people have a slightly higher risk of heart disease than overweight people has nothing to do with the fact that people of a normal weight have less risk of a heart disease than overweight people. Being of a normal weight is not the same as being skinny or overly thin, despite what most people here seem to think. It's inbetween.

The waist to hip thing makes total sense to me, belly fat is just about the worst kind, health wise. Especially for women.
posted by fshgrl at 11:00 PM on August 22, 2006

The fact that underweight people have a slightly higher risk of heart disease than overweight people has nothing to do with the fact that people of a normal weight have less risk of a heart disease than overweight people.

I'll speak with a bit of experience as a person that has gained roughly 0 pounds +/-5 since I've been out of college. That was almost 10 years ago. When you can eat whatever you want and stay the same weight, well, you eat alot of crap.

Fatty foods taste good. If you can keep that diet of fatty foods going (and not feel like ass), "underweight" people will be more likely to die of heart disease.

There's a larger problem here.
posted by ryoshu at 12:58 AM on August 23, 2006

There is a reason that fat people and people who love fat people and who (both sets) have an ounce of dignity they want to preserve don't post on fat bashing threads on Metafilter (or on Metafilter at all) and threads like this are why.

You guys are definitely turning off a lot of good people from contributing.
posted by kalessin at 3:45 AM on August 23, 2006

fshgrl : "'it's extremely stressful to live as a fat person...in a society that reviles you '

Society IS fat people. This is America."

Yeah, but society reviles itself.
posted by Bugbread at 5:00 AM on August 23, 2006

it's hurfdurfbuttereater, peep. Sheesh.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:38 AM on August 23, 2006

Um...exactly how is quadruple bypass necessarily the result of being overweight? It isn't.

Wow, ever since you wrote that my dad's health has improved and his diabetes has gone away, along with the skin ulcers on his feet that take months to heal. Thanks for the science pal!

[reaches for BK Stacker]
posted by craniac at 7:18 AM on August 23, 2006

I think chest/waist ratio and waist/hip ratio are probably the best indicators, short of a full stress test. The BMI clearly has some issues. For example, a 6 foot tall man would have a normal weight range of 137 lbs - 183 lbs using the BMI. 137 lbs seems crazy skinny to me, and I don't know anyone coming even close to that number/height combo.
posted by Crash at 7:29 AM on August 23, 2006

Other things that can kill you:
...
Massive Brain Explosion.

I could probably keep going for a while.
posted by dios at 4:01 PM PST on August 22 [+ 1] [!]

You're safe, dios; your brain is not massive.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:53 AM on August 23, 2006

When I was younger, I was 6' 2" and 125 pounds. That was underweight. When I hit 30 (which coincided with a change of medication from more powerful to less powerful daily stimulants - for chronic, severe asthma), I went to 185 pounds (in a year). I was told that I was then overweight.

Oddly enough, upon gaining that weight, I kept gradually gaining eventually stabilized at 220 (at around 33-34, and have been 220 for 4 years), which is considered obese according to the BMI charts, apparently.

I think my eating habits changed when my medication changed, but it's hard to see the connection given that really nothing else about my life got less healthy. Instead of being non-athletic and sick all the time like I was when I was underweight, I now go to the gym regularly, am stronger, am faster, don't get sick very often, and my blood pressure, cholesterol, liver and kidney functions, hormonal levels, etc (I'm under ongoing treatment for Klinefelter's Syndrome, which is a hormonal and chromosomal disorder, so I get many tests each year) are all in the optimal range.

Except my weight. Which, to be honest, I've stopped caring about.

I know that there are hundreds of factors in my life that make simple statistical interpretation messy, but I guess that's part of my point. No one knows what'll kill me, ultimately, until it does. Statistics won't help me know what will apply to my individual experience of life, health, body size or happiness. I do my homework, keep the body and the mind as healthy as I can, and I don't stress the details.

This kind of incessant ranting and obsessing about one particular aspect of life and whether or not it is individually healthy or unhealthy appears to me to be very unhealthy a fascination when my priorities are about living life well, loving life and people honestly and honorably, and doing good.
posted by kalessin at 8:35 AM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite]

it's hurfdurfbuttereater, peep. Sheesh.

Dammit. Typo, I swear.
posted by peep at 8:41 AM on August 23, 2006

Um...exactly how is quadruple bypass necessarily the result of being overweight? It isn't.

Wow, ever since you wrote that my dad's health has improved and his diabetes has gone away, along with the skin ulcers on his feet that take months to heal. Thanks for the science pal!

[reaches for BK Stacker]
posted by bim at 8:50 AM on August 23, 2006

Ignore the previous post. :) I hit post comment instead of preview.

You're not much on reading, are you craniac? I was discussing heart problems, yet you're going on about diabetes which I never mentioned.

And since I've been through the hereditary high cholestoral thing, I know a thing or two from my doctor.

So put your BK stacker down and pay attention!
posted by bim at 8:53 AM on August 23, 2006

Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:29 AM on August 23, 2006

McDonald's hash browns -- nectar of the gods!
posted by bim at 10:09 AM on August 23, 2006

Technically, I'm a fattie. Still, that doesn't slow me down with the ladies!

Unless one or two girls showing some interest every few years is slow.
posted by Bageena at 1:56 PM on August 23, 2006

Metafilter: The kid keeps eating the candy bar even while his throat is being slashed.
posted by knave at 3:12 PM on August 23, 2006

Two girls at once?
posted by kalessin at 4:21 PM on August 23, 2006

Uh, huh. This article says the exact opposite:

"Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, say they have found that people with a BMI of 30-35 were at lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those whose BMI was below 20."

So being a little overweight is actually a positive thing according to that study.
posted by GuyZero

From the article in this very post: "The latest studies contradict controversial research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year that suggested being a little plump isn't so bad. Since then, CDC chief Dr. Julie Gerberding distanced herself from the report and acknowledged potential flaws in the study that included people with health problems who tend to weigh less." [emphasis added]

Also, hellooo blind spot. There's a lotta room in between BMIs of 30 and 20. From another writeup: "Overall, baby boomers who were underweight or obese had an increased risk of death compared with normal-weight people." [emphasis added]
posted by NortonDC at 5:54 PM on August 23, 2006

fshgrl : "Society IS fat people. This is America."

Actually, no, this is cyberspace.

But I do in fact live in America, and I can testify that America reviles fat women, oh yes indeedy. It even reviles slightly chubby women. And in many circles, women who are not walking sticks are looked down on.

As for American society consisting of fat people: Did you know that one reason more people are "overweight" in America these days is because the gummint actually changed the definition of overweight?
posted by parrot_person at 7:14 PM on August 23, 2006

mecran01 writes "His quality of life index is dropping rapidly."

That correlates with quality of life, right?
posted by krinklyfig at 8:06 PM on August 23, 2006

krinklyfig : "That correlates with quality of life, right?"

I think it was a mistype for "quality of life index rating value position"
posted by Bugbread at 9:20 PM on August 23, 2006