US is getting fatter again

[Sava]

hmmm... the YFI

YOU'RE FAT INDEX


i point at fat people and give them a high number

instantly more effective than the mental retardation that is BMI

[giblets]

because so many americans are overweight,

You can't say this without defining what a "normal weight" is.

[Sava]

and also

god forbid everyone in america get in shape

we'd all still have high BMI's

considering human behavior probably hasn't drastically changed in the last 30 years, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, we should start to look at highly refined food additives... you know, **** that is being put in everyone's food... well, unless you are some rich housewife and only shop at whole foods


let's see

are we being fed crap? or has everyone just managed to lose the trait of "self-control" in the last 30 years?

[Sava]

You can't say this without defining what a "normal weight" is.

yes
correct


and this in NO WAY means that BMI is a good indicator of "normal weight"

any more irrelevant bits of bull****?

[giblets]

yes
correct


and this in NO WAY means that BMI is a good indicator of "normal weight"

any more irrelevant bits of bull****?

Impact of Body Mass Index on Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors in Men and Women


Abstract

Increased body weight has been associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in several populations. We studied the distribution of body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) in men (n=1566; mean age, 49±10 years) and women (n=1627; mean age, 49±10 years) participating in the third examination cycle of the Framingham Offspring Study and the association of BMI with known CHD risk factors. In men, BMI increased with age until age 50 years, when it reached a plateau. In women, there was a trend toward an increase in BMI with age up to the seventh decade of life. Seventy-two percent of men and 42% of women had a BMI ≥25.00, the cutoff point for the definition of overweight. In age-adjusted analyses, BMI was significantly and linearly associated with systolic blood pressure, fasting glucose levels, plasma total cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels and was inversely and linearly associated with HDL cholesterol levels (P<.001) in nonsmoking men and women. The association between BMI and apolipoprotein B and A-I was similar to that of LDL and HDL cholesterol, respectively. LDL size was also linearly associated with BMI: subjects with higher BMI had smaller LDL particles. Lipoprotein(a) levels were not associated with BMI in this population. Of all these risk factors for CHD, reduced HDL cholesterol levels and hypertension were those more strongly associated with higher BMI in both men and women. Elevated triglyceride levels and small LDL particles, and diabetes in women, were also strongly associated with higher BMI values in this population. Our results indicate that a high prevalence of adult Americans are overweight and support the concept that increased BMI is associated with an adverse effect on all major CHD risk factors. These results emphasize the importance of excess body fat as a public health issue.

http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/16/12/1509.abstract

Oops it looks like having a BMI over 25 is correlated with heart disease.

[Sava]

being born on a day that ends in Y correlates with heart disease

[giblets]

being born on a day that ends in Y correlates with heart disease

No it doesn't. People who don't have heart disease were also born on a day that ends in Y.

[Sava]

100% of people with heart disease were born on a day that ends in Y

much more reliable than BMI, it seems

[giblets]

100% of people with heart disease were born on a day that ends in Y

much more reliable than BMI, it seems

100% of people without heart disease were born on a day that ends in Y. R-squared is zero.

[Sava]

seems like you just don't understand statistics

[giblets]

Some good news:

U.S. Smoking Rate Falls to 15 Percent: CDC

TUESDAY, Sept. 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. smoking rate continues to decline, with just over 15 percent of adults reporting they're current smokers, a new government survey reveals.

That's down from nearly 17 percent in 2014 and almost 18 percent in 2013. The falloff reflects a continued decline that started in 2010 after a decade of no progress against smoking, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

Higher tobacco taxes, tough anti-smoking messages and smoke-free laws that ban smoking from indoor and outdoor areas appear to be dissuading even hard-core, heavily addicted smokers from continuing the habit, said Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y.

"I hear from smokers all the time, 'When I can't smoke here, I can't smoke there, when people see me smoke they look at me like I'm a pariah -- it makes me want to not smoke anymore,' " said Folan, who applauded the continued decline of smoking in America.

The new data comes from the CDC's 2015 National Health Interview Survey, an annual survey that tracks a variety of public health issues.

The smoking rate has fallen dramatically since 1965, when 42 percent of adults smoked, the CDC said.

But between 2004 and 2009, progress stalled, and the U.S. smoking rate hovered around 20 percent. Anti-smoking activists wondered if there would be no way to convince the remaining diehard smokers to quit tobacco.

These [new] numbers show that America's current anti-smoking strategy works, and that we need to do "more of the same," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy for the American Lung Association.

Carr cited smoke-free laws as one innovation that's made a real difference. But he added that only one state -- North Dakota -- has passed a comprehensive smoke-free law within the last five years. There still are 22 states that haven't passed any limitations on where a person can smoke, he said.

"It could have an impact on the smoking rate, and definitely would protect more people from secondhand smoke," Carr said.

Carr and Folan also cited anti-smoking ads that feature smokers talking about the toll the habit has taken on their lives and their health.

"Smokers find them so painful to watch that they keep changing the channel, but these ads are running everywhere," Folan said. She's heard from smokers that these spots have motivated them to quit and to resist the temptation to resume.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's push to begin regulating other smoking products, such as cigars, hookahs and e-cigarettes, could also help further reduce the smoking rate, Carr added.

"That's something the Obama Administration needs to move on," Carr said.

Experts don't know whether e-cigarettes have played a role in the reduction of the smoking rate, as there haven't been enough studies conducted to assess their impact, Carr and Folan said.

"We haven't seen the evidence of that yet," Carr said. "Up to 75 percent of the users are dual users. They use e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes at the same time. That's not reducing your risk at all."

Who continues to smoke? More men smoke than women -- 17 percent compared with 13 percent, the CDC reported.

Race also plays a factor, with more blacks (18 percent) smoking than whites (17 percent) or Hispanics (10 percent).

Folan believes that future anti-smoking efforts will need to be more targeted. For example, people without a high school diploma, people with low income, and those struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse are all groups that have proven resistant to the anti-smoking groundswell.

Cliff Douglas, American Cancer Society vice president for Tobacco Control and director of the American Cancer Society's Tobacco Control Center, said the new numbers are "encouragingly consistent with the decrease we've seen since 2009, especially following the stagnation of the mid-2000s."

Douglas said the differences in smoking between men and women and between the races "highlight the importance of something that's crucial to us -- addressing disparities in the tobacco epidemic."

http://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/u-s-smoking-rate-falls-to-15-percent-cdc-702832.html

[Sava]

interesting because cigarettes are considered highly addictive

food is, but isn't thought of that way

and probably not by you, maven of personal responsibility

[giblets]

And yet lots of people quit smoking.

[Sava]

Yes. Most successfully by strategies that do not include shaming... because there's no shame in suffering from addiction.

HOW IS THIS HELPING YOU? IDIOT

[giblets]

Are you claiming that smoking isn't stigmatized...?