A Few Extra Pounds Are Good For You? Ctd

Lindsay Abrams urges caution when interpreting the finding that higher BMIs are associated with decreased mortality rates:

Aside from the obvious limitations — people who pass away after a lengthy period of disease, for example, will likely be thinner than they might have been had they died unexpectedly — the study fails to take into account any of the various other measures used to assess health. It ignores blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol — high levels of all are directly associated with a variety of chronic conditions and diseases — not to mention mental health and life satisfaction scores. As another large-scale study recently pointed out, longevity isn't everything. The population as a whole is living longer than it was twenty years ago, but the number of those years spent in poor health are increasing as well.

That BMI is an imperfect measure of body size is emphasized here as well. The simple calculation of height and weight ignores gender, age, and muscle mass … A BMI in the "overweight" range, from 25 to just below 30, encompasses a broad sweep of body diversity: A frequently cited argument is that Michael Jordan, at his prime, would have been classified as overweight. By almost any other measure but BMI, we would almost certainly put him in the range of ideal health.