Study challenges ‘healthy but obese’ theory Being overweight or obese does pose a risk

PARIS: Being overweight or obese does pose a risk of heart disease, despite claims to the contrary, a study of nearly 300,000 British adults suggested Friday.

While it is generally accepted that being overweight increases a person’s disease risk, some researchers have recently suggested that carrying extra weight does not actually boost death rates for some, particularly the elderly. A number have even suggested that being overweight may protect against disease, a claim dubbed the “obesity paradox.” But the latest study, published in the European Heart Journal, said there is no paradox. It looked at 296,535 people aged 40-69 who enrolled in an ongoing health study in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2010. For the latest analysis, data on the participants — all of “white European descent” — was available until 2015. All were healthy when they first enrolled. The researchers noted the participants’ Body Mass Index (BMI) — a ratio of weight-to-height squared used to determine whether a person falls in a healthy weight range.as obese.