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Posts feedBattle of the Bulge
[Regular visitors to our blog will have guessed from the title that this posting is about obesity. If you landed here looking for WWII material, you want the other Battle of the Bulge.]
Cart before horse?
Predicting the exact impact of weight upon mortality has proven to be a tricky business. That obesity is on the rise is universally acknowledged, but in recent years we have seen research studies reach differing conclusions, depending on the populations examined and the measures used.
Sweet and sour
Public health initiatives, such as those being considered in the UK around sugar, carry risks as well as potential benefits for any government. The first consequence of action is the near-certain accusation of presiding over a nanny state.
Weighing the evidence
We've previously discussed the significant challenges involved in forecasting mortality by cause of death. Needless to say it isn't any easier to predict the impact of trends in lifestyle factors that drive those causes.
Discrimination
In an earlier blog I discussed the role of Body-Mass Index (BMI) in measuring obesity. An alternative measure to the BMI is to measure your waistline, since this is more directly indicative of health-threatening abdominal fat than the BMI is.
Measuring obesity
Obesity is a public-health concern throughout the developed world, since it is linked to a variety of chronic conditions such as diabetes.