Fat is Good, Fat is Bad, Fat is Good, Fat is…

In the beginning, life was simple. Fat was bad. Thin was good. Then, in April of 2005,  researchers at that National Cancer Institute and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that a few extra pounds might be a good thing, because people who were slightly overweight appeared to have a lower risk of death than people who were of normal weight.  Many people celebrated with a large meal and a few beers. Now, however, a group of spoilers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society have challenged the some-fat-is-good study. As Gina Kolata writes in the New York Times,  the critics said other studies, including their own, had found that the death risk from excess pounds increased continuously from normal weight to overweight to obesity. Some critics of the first study said the federal analysis had failed to exclude smokers and people who were already ill, factors that can lead to underestimates of mortality linked to overweight and obesity. The feds, the Times reports, stood by their study. Stay tuned.