One thing that is greatly irritating me in reading about this stuff is that people in North America, when doling out their statistics, seem to be conflating three things that are, to me, quite distinct. The three things are: activity level, diet and body weight. These three things are not at all the same, but people talking about preventable causes of death in North America seem to regularly mix them up. And that is really too bad, because I believe that there is too much emphasis on body weight. Really, it is quite possible to be small and weak and sickly and unfit and also to be large and strong and fit. Here’s a quote: “One of the largest studies on the topic was undertaken in 1994 and repeat results were reported in 1999. Researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, an organisation that studies health and fitness, traced about 20,000 men and determined that mortality rates went up as fitness levels dropped.
“The fact is, if you’re fit, it doesnt matter what your BMI is in terms of
mortality,” says Dr Steven Blair, an epidemiologist and president of the
institute recently told the Los Angeles Times.”
posted at 16:30 on Fri, 17 Mar, 2006 |
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