http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...esity-epidemic/

Like the folks on the ETS forum, The freakonomics folks enjoy questioning asumptions and conventional wisdom. Their take on the obesity-mortality link:

"Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease. With the exception of a few minor conditions (like osteoarthritis), we don’t have any good evidence that adiposity causes any physical harm. By the same statistical criteria used to call obesity a disease, one could also claim that being male, being overly tall, or even being black is a disease (i.e., all correlate with early mortality and morbidity). The fact that we choose to demonize fatness rather than these other traits illustrates how concerns about obesity are rooted far more in political and cultural standards than scientific ones.

In short, the biggest problem with all the hype about the obesity epidemic is that it assumes that:

A) weight is a good barometer of health (it isn’t);
B) being thin is the same as being healthy (it’s not);
C) anyone can be thin if they want to (which is not true)."

Interesting stuff-reminds of the discussion of the BPA water container scare.