The Economist: Battle of the bulge
… and no, the profile pic is not a self-portrait.
If people would read blogs less and exercise more, we wouldn't have this problem. … Oh wait … did I say that out loud?
Battle of the bulge
Comments
6 responses to “Battle of the bulge”
-
I doubt this is a very accurate graph, because I suspect that the 1998 part uses numbers from before the BMI ranges were lowered (which happened in 1998). This creates a false sense of change, because millions of people became “overweight” and “obese” overnight without actually gaining a pound.
-
Interesting observation, Katherine. I’ll do some digging and see what I can find out.
-
It’s really simple, eat less, eat better and exercise more. Why can’t I get paid millions for this kind of advice the way the developers of Adkins, South Beach etc. have?
-
I’ll echo Katherine’s observation that beyond tracking a general trend (albeit an important and broadly accurate one) it is tough to rely too heavily (did you see what I did there, funny?) on any data resting on the BMI (NPR did a good run down on the how and why of that when the report first came out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439) – though it must be noted that there is some correlation between high BMI and propensity to heart disease, etc. We need better data.
-
The site is slower than Christmas, so I gave up, but I’m with Katherine. The article suggests the BMI of 30 was used consistently across the 10 years, but there’s something statistical going on here. America did not grow 7% heavier in 10 years. I mean, I’m all about believing our society’s headed off in a handbasket, but if those numbers were a complete picture we’d be seeing something more somewhere.
One comment suggested the increase might be a matter of our aging population. -
“…it is tough to rely too heavily (did you see what I did there, funny?)”
Yes, John, I saw it. Thank you for “weighing” in. 😉
Leave a Reply to neilCancel reply