The Perils of Excess Fat Tissue
Letting yourself become very overweight and staying that way - something that is definitely a choice for most of us - is not good for your health and longevity, not to mention your wallet once those medical expenses start to roll in: "We prospectively assessed the association between an increase in body mass index (BMI) category since age 20 years and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality. Self-reported information pertaining to BMI was collected from 38,080 Japanese men and women aged 40-79 years at study entry in 1994 ... We observed an increased risk of all-cause mortality both among participants who had been persistently obese since early adulthood and participants who showed an increase in BMI category from normal to obese ... In contrast, we did not observe an increased risk of all-cause mortality for normal weight at age 20 years and overweight at study entry, and stable overweight. For CVD and cancer mortality, these results were consistently observed."