Chubby Means Significantly Longer Life!

A Japanese study at the Graduate School of Medicine at Tohoku University has found that obese is healthier than thin, and being chubby (remember "pleasingly plump"?) is healthiest of all.

People who are somewhat overweight by age 40 live longer than their very thin counterparts by 6 to 7 years. Even more surprising is that obese people outlive the thin by a margin of about 5 years.

"The study was conducted by a health ministry team led by Tohoku University professor Ichiro Tsuji and covered 50,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 over 12 years in the northern Japanese prefecture of Miyagi."

Even though the data showed a significant life expectancy difference for the plump and obese, the study spokesman could not bring himself to recommend laissez-faire on eating.

". . . Kuriyama warned he was not recommending people eat as much as they want.

"'It's better that thin people try to gain normal weight, but we doubt it's good for people of normal physique to put on more fat,' he said."

Actually, it's not surprising that they doubt the positive effects of putting on extra weight even though their study results clearly indicate that more weight means a half a decade or more of life. Imagine the price they would pay from media and scientific trend enforcers if they really tried to apply their findings to everyday life.


H/T Drudge Report