It’s a well-documented scientific phenomenon, but it’s often dismissed because it just sounds too ridiculous.
Over a decade ago, researchers began to notice something interesting. Some people with chronic conditions, such as heart disease, were doing much better than others with the same health conditions.
This should have been good news, but instead it was confusing. All of the patients that were doing better were either overweight or mildly obese.
Of course this confused healthcare professionals. Glenn Gaesser, dorector of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, said: “When health-care professionals get their first nutrition books, there’s a chapter on obesity, and it generally says that fat people are unhealthy and thin people are healthy.”
So researchers started calling it the “obesity paradox,” and began trying to explain it away.
However, dozens of studies have slowly proved its relevance.
Being overweight now seems to actually be beneficial for quite a few problems. It can protect against pneumonia, cancer, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and even cancer.
Katherine Flegal, an epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has spearheaded much of these findings. During a study connecting mortality rates and BMI, she found the lowest mortality rates in people with BMIs in the overweight to mildly obese categories (25-30).
There’s only a strong link, she says, between heart disease and severe obesity. So at face value, it’s pretty beneficial to have a little extra.
Not only that, but the popular arguments against this study seem to be easily discredited. One of the most popular theories is that overweight people get more aggressive treatment for their diseases. However, study after study has shown that overweight and obese patients often receive worse treatment, and are misdiagnosed as “fat” by doctors instead of an actual condition.
Health at Every Size, according to Quartz, is the most reasonable explanation. No matter what your actual weight is, you can take advantage of a healthy diet and regular exercise. Compared with a weight loss approach, Health at Every Size leads to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as other disease factors.
So if you’re trying your best to lose those pounds, maybe try to focus on your health instead. You’ll live longer!
