an article about weight that does not induce panic?

"Researchers and doctors are starting to understand that eating healthy foods and getting exercise can matter more than the number that appears when you step on the scale."

"A little physical activity" twice a week was enough to ameliorate some of the harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle."

"An Australian study found that people in their 70's who were overweight were less likely to die in a ten-year time span."

These are a few quotes that are refreshingly different from the general hysteria about weight from a recent Post article. A few months ago the Post exhorted women to partake in 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity a day if they wanted to stave off weight gain associated with aging. (The natural and as these studies suggest-protective weight gain associated with aging...) Every time you turn around you read about the perils of being "overweight" or "obese," how your pudgy child will die an early death of diabetes and misery.

There is a whole body of research out there that questions some of our most basic assumptions about weight and health, and the fact that even some of them are getting press is exciting.

I think it's a nice start. (Though the article fails in it's discussion about "obesity" in that most studies do not separate once folks get above a BMI of 30. Much of the risk associated with "obesity" does not appear statistically significant until the BMI is over 35 or 40... Just a note on how the statistics can be manipulated or not fully disclosed or understood.)

Thoughts? Did you see this or other "whistles in the hurricane" of health hysteria?