Longevity

How much would you give for a few more years? For your average person, no price would be too high – or would it? Being lean and healthy can obviously lead to a more satisfying life, but does it really allow you to live longer? Read on to find out.

In the years before the obesity epidemic, nobody really knew for sure if being fat made much difference in how long you lived. Even into the 1990s, statements like this one were common:

“The data linking overweight and death, as well as the data showing the beneficial effects of weight loss, are limited, fragmentary, and often ambiguous. Most of the evidence is either indirect or derived from observational epidemiologic studies, many of which have serious methodologic flaws.”

From an Editorial, The New England Journal of Medicine, 1998

Many claimed that it was simply bias against fat people in general, like this comment:

“Studies concluding that obesity is harmful are embraced, despite potential flaws. Studies concluding that obesity is [not harmful] are rejected or simply ignored, regardless of merit.”

From the Journal of Obesity and Weight Regulation, 1987

New studies, however, including those monitoring relatively large populations show something quite different:

“…analyses of BMI during midlife (age of 50 years) among those who had never smoked, the associations became stronger, with the risk of death increasing by 20 to 40 percent among overweight persons and by two to at least three times among obese persons; the risk of death among underweight persons was attenuated.”

From The New England Journal of Medicine, August, 2006

BMI is the Body Mass Index – an outdated but still widely used measure of height and weigh to determine obesity. The BMI is notorious for not taking into consideration things like body type and muscle mass. For sedentary individuals, however, it still can be a fairly accurate diagnostic tool.

Note in the study - which included 527,265 people 50 to 71 years old – lasted 10 years. During that period, more than 65,000 died. This is no small, lightweight study but a serious look at how obesity affects how long you live.

20 to 40% is no laughing matter. Basically, being obese is a proven killer and being overweight is dangerous. This study also does not mention non-fatal health problems that impact issues like quality of life and lifetime earnings.

Looking at more antidotal evidence, like life expectancy in general, one finds some statistics to help back this evidence. For example, despite the U.S. having one of the most expensive and modern medical systems on earth, it’s not even in the top 20 when it comes to longevity. In fact, it’s listed at number 22 – right below Jordan. But then again, the U.S. is the most obese nation on earth with more than 30% of the population qualifying for this dubious distinction.

When comparing obesity rates with the champions of longevity – the Japanese at 81 years for women and 79 for men – the obesity factor stands out even stronger. Obesity rates in Japan are much lower than in the U.S. Only 24% of Japanese 15 and older are believed to be overweight, compared to about 65% of adults in the United States.

Obesity and overweight are often confused. Obese is generally used to mean a person has more than 25% body fat by weight in men and 30% or more in women.

Why are the Japanese so thin? It has to do with cultural values surrounding foods. They emphasize presentation over quantity and ritual over Western-style face stuffing. In fact, Westerners are often put in separate dining rooms in more sophisticated establishments to avoid offending the rest of the clients with their pig-like behavior.

Japanese people, although smaller, also take in fewer calories. They tend to eat around 1,900 per day as opposed to the 2,300 calorie average in the U.S.

Japan, unfortunately, has started to catch up to the U.S. Its obesity rates among children are rising fast and local researchers believe this trend will soon topple Japan from the top longevity spot.

The largest continuous population area with high life expectancies - 7th, 8th and 9th on the list respectively – are Italy, France and Spain. They also have low rates of obesity – France has just 11.3 percent of the general population suffering from obesity, for example. And this is a ten percent rise since 1997.

French cuisine hardly qualifies as lean, either – they frequently use tons of olive oil and butter to make many dishes. But they eat much smaller portions which keeps their total caloric intake down.

The same applies to the Italians – Alfredo sauce and pasta is a recipe for a coronary when gulped down in super-sized portions, but can be tolerated if eaten in moderation and combined with other healthy diet choices like fish and vegetables.

It’s useful to note that the portion size only has to be a tiny bit bigger to make a huge difference over a long period of time. Every extra calorie you eat is stored as fat, so even 20 per day is enough to gain you a spare tire over a year.

Inhabitants of Spain eat more seafood than almost anyone else in Europe which helps explain why they are slim. Fish tends to be high in protein and low in fat making it almost the perfect food. Even the fattest mollusks are much lower in fat than the red meats preferred by other nations.

As these nations Americanize, all of them are getting fatter – the availability of pizza, fast-food and sugar loaded snacks is beginning to parallel the U.S. Health experts are alarmed at the rapid rise of obesity of children which portends a whole generation of obese adults.

So while we may see a gradual rise in world life expectancy over the next fifty years, those nations in the top ten may actually go backwards as rising obesity rates take their toll on longevity.

Here are some interesting links showing the most obese nations:

Obesity Rates Worldwide

Obesity by Country

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