Obesity is the new lung cancer

Eating more than you burn is worse than smoking, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday.

Declines in smoking in the last 15 years increases today's 18-year-old's life expectancy by 0.31 years, while rising obesity reduces that expectancy by 1.02. So we're looking at a net loss of 0.71 years.

According to the lead author of the study, Susan T. Stewart, in the last 15 years smoking rates declined 20%, but obesity rates increased 48%. So if this continues, nearly half of our population will be obese by 2020.

Her 48% number corresponds with the CDC, which also breaks it down into race groups as well.



Well my free trial to NEJM expired months ago and for some reason NYU will only give the abstract summary of the study, so I've yet to figure out how to get my hands on the entire thing. What I'd like to know if the study takes into account the diminished life expectancy of those who get secondhand smoke, which would be an obvious factor. After all, you don't get fatter by breathing next to fat people. But whatever the accurate number is, I'm sure it wouldn't change the overall message, which is a message we've been hearing for a long time now.

But according to another study last year published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, why obesity happens is attributed 77% to genetics as opposed to environmental factors (prevalence of fast food and poor exercise habits). Which you can take it to mean that obese people are only marrying other obese people, adverse selection ("moderately overweight" women are more fertile), or our environment of cheap transfat calories (read Michael Pollan's books for convincing info on this, or Fast Food Nation, although it was written 5 years ago) has truly become horrendous for your health. This question is unanswered by the researchers themselves.

Hopefully we'll get closer to genome therapy for an "obesity cure" and keep away from the olestra and oily stools (here too). But considering most diseases as far as we know are multi-gene disorders and following the death of 18-year-old gene therapy patient Jesse Gelsinger caused by a massive immune response to the virus vector used to transport the gene into his cells, continue your healthy habits and don't bet on a magic pill just yet.