More of the CDC's Massive Correction

Man, I hate that headline: "Extra Heft". Like someone couldn't stand to not get that dig in.

I love this take on the whole issue by Vincent Carrol, editor at the Rocky Mountain News. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_3716584,00.html "...Gerberding didn't merely overhype a crisis, after all. She helped invent one. A net annual total of 26,000 premature deaths apparently occur among people the government classifies as overweight. She overshot by 375,000....Gerberding is yet another bureaucrat who uses a public pulpit to launch scare campaigns that serve simultaneously to elevate their own importance. Missing the mark by a factor of 16 is not good enough for government work...." Right on!

What a great final quote: "The take-home message from this study, it seems to me, is unambiguous," Dr. Glassner said. "What is officially deemed overweight these days is actually the optimal weight."

It just keeps rattling around in my head, as I read these articles, that ALL people will die, eventually, of one thing or another. I am not a statistician so I guess I don't really grasp the hoopla. A very good bud of mine just died yesterday. He was 39 and the picture of health, thin, wiry, athletic, ate wholesome food and drank soy milk. Did all the right things. He was diagnosed with liver cancer in Feb, died yesterday. I wonder what stat he falls into...he was a thin Jewish salesman who lived in Connecticut...I just don't understand. Why can't the media make peace with the fact that death is just another part of life? Not really looking for an answer here, just venting.

I have no idea why a Government agency would try to overestimate causes of death. Wait.. Pharmaceutical Industry total donations to campaign funds: $26,686,392 in 2000 and $17,077,565 in 2004, with guess which party taking the majority.

There's a blurb in my paper here, the SF Examiner with a chart showing that - more people get fat from dieting than from binge eating and high fat eating combined - exercise is more associated with obesity than is eating high fat foods - genetic are most of body size. none of it new for people here, but it's in the flipping paper.

Exercise is associated with obesity? That is a new one on me, actually. Could you elaborate? Thanks.

I think there's studies showing exercise is associated with weight gain in some people, I think Sandy Szwarck (sp?) cites that, I believe it's especially true of women. I'm not sure how the statistics work here, I suppose it could be cross associated with dieting which is associated with weight gain, but I think there are actual studies showing about 30% of people gain weight from exericise when they have the same caloric intake, something like that. I can't seem to find this story online, it's a chart in the SFExaminer that I'm looking at.

The CDC simply screwed up. Then admitted it, then corrected it, then admitted it again, then corrected it again. It happens. Nice it's getting reported.

I gain weight when I excersize more, but I loose inches. Muscle weighs more than fat, and the only numbers examined to determine obesity are height and weight.

ah, I looked at the article again and this is a sample of teenage girls. Maybe that was already mentioned here.

I read the entire JAMA article carefully and I didn't see anything about a sample of teenage girls. In fact, if you look at Table 2 (which, for me, is the key table in the article), they have people divided by age and the age range goes all the way across the spectrum. Where did you see something about this being a sample of teenage girls?

I'm really glad to see this report. It's been on FoxNews, the subject has made it to late night TV, it's in the papers, it's GREAT! Now combine this study with how people are starting to question the FDA and we might actually see some change. Maybe we'll actually, gasp, see news stories attacking the diet industry.