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Body Mass Index and Diabetes

Alert Reader and Industry Figure Stephen Newell pointed out the wonderfulness of “Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating”, by researcher Walter C. Willett, M.D.

It’s notable for being backed up by peer-reviewed studies, which is too rare in these kinds of books.
(”Whoa, Science? I’m suspicious!”)

As an example, the famous Nurses’ Health Study yielded the following horrible graph:

Grahp from Nurses' Health Study, showing dramatic, n-squared curve of BMI vs. diabetes risk.

Some of the risks, such as High Blood Pressure, have ‘only’ doubled by the time you’ve moved from a BMI of 20 to 24. But look at the way that Diabetes sails off the chart!

Woof, as a 6 foot 1/2 inch guy, I’d have to get down to about 165 pounds to have a BMI of 22. Seems like a lot of work. But then again, there’s the not-dying part…

OK, I’m in!

And remember: “It’s more fun to compete!“

Comments

  1. Tom Chappell wrote:

    John Blackburn wondered what the diabetes line did as it sailed off for the moon. The September 2007 issue of Scientific American has this:

    Many Americans find it difficult to get under a BMI of 25, the border between overweight and healthy groups. But Willett’s work suggests that losing more weight is even better. To take one example, people with a BMI of 20 who gain enough to reach a BMI of 25 have quadrupled their risk of diabetes, Willett says. “If they go up over a BMI of 30, they’ve increased their risk of diabetes 30- to 60-fold,” he says. “And diabetes is not a good thing to have.”

    “Can Fat Be Fit?”, by Paul Raeburn, Scientific American, September, 2007, p. 70.

    Posted 29 Aug 2007 at 10:09 pm

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