Lean For Life!

Maintaining a healthy body weight throughout your life could help you live longer while the other end of the spectrum, carrying excess body fat, might do the opposite. Now, this hardly seems monumentally news-breaking given the amount of research we have that links obesity to numerous health-related conditions that decrease mortality. But maybe it is a good thing that researchers continue to probe these relationships as it seems that quite a large portion of our population still hasn’t made it a priority to keep their weight under control. Not only does it affect the individual from a personal health perspective, but it also affects everyone from the standpoints of increased medical costs and dollars being spent on diseases that are largely preventable with proper lifestyle modification.

In one study from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, U.S. scientists found that slim people had the lowest risk of dying over a 15-year period -- 12 percent for women and 20 percent for men. Meanwhile, obese men and women had the highest risk -- 20 percent for women and 24 percent for men. The underlying effect here is that preventing obesity may also prevent its consequences, which include diabetes and heart disease. The data collected from 116,000 participants in 2 prior health studies showed that people who maintain the leanest body shape have the lowest risk of dying prematurely. Participants were asked to recall their body shape at ages 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40. They also provided their weight at 50. They were followed from age 60 over an average of 15 to 16 years. In addition, participants completed questionnaires on lifestyle and health every two years and on diet every four years.

Another group of researchers analyzed 230 previously published studies that included more than 30 million people and nearly 4 million deaths. What they found was that among people who never smoked, the leanest lived the longest, and that gaining weight over time was linked with higher risks of premature death. While this also underscored the mortality risk that one incurs from smoking, it did reinforce the importance of weight management throughout life.

Ideally, the process should start early since adult obesity could be prevented by managing weight in childhood and adolescence. Once good habits are set at an early age, it is more likely that they will continue on in adulthood, when losing weight becomes less easy than it was during the younger years. Therefore, parents need to help instill good eating practices in their children while also setting a good example by the diets they eat themselves. And if those practices are repeated generation by generation, we just may see a decline in obesity related deaths and health issues. Lean and healthy is the way to go!