Friday Favorites: Is the Obesity Paradox Real or a Myth?
How do we explain studies that suggest overweight individuals live longer?
If you missed my other videos in this series on the ABCs of obesity, see:
• The Best Knee Replacement Alternative for Osteoarthritis Treatment ( )
• The Effects of Obesity on Back Pain, Blood Pressure, Cancer, and Diabetes ( )
• The Effects of Obesity on Dementia, Brain Function, and Fertility ( )
• The Effects of Obesity on Gallstones, Acid Reflux, and Cardiovascular Disease ( )
• The Effects of Obesity on the Immune System and Kidney and Liver Diseases ( )
• What’s the Ideal BMI? ( )
• What’s the Ideal Waist Size? ( )
I cover all of this and more at length in my book How Not to Diet ( ). Its companion—the How Not to Diet Cookbook ( )—has more than 100 delicious Green-Light recipes that incorporate some of my 21 Tweaks ( ) for the acceleration of body fat loss.
Why are people obese in the first place? I have a whole series of videos on that topic, including:
• The Role of Diet vs. Exercise in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Genes in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Thrifty Gene Theory: Survival of the Fattest ( )
• Cut the Calorie-Rich-And-Processed Foods ( )
• The Role of Processed Foods in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Taxpayer Subsidies in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Marketing in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Food Advertisements in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Personal Responsibility in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of Corporate Influence in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
• The Role of the Toxic Food Environment in the Obesity Epidemic ( )
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Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at . You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics.
Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
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What values and beliefs do you find important in life?😚
I am 378 years old the secret is Whole food plant based diet. 😊
Amusing. You may not live that long, but a good plant based diet will help your body function better in the later years. Clog your system with animal fats and proteins and spend the last 10 years in a nursing home.
@@Spock_Rogers 15
I’m glad you figure all this stuff out for us. I’m glad my overweight friend didn’t see that article. She seizes any excuse. Well, I have learned to talk about other things with her. 🕊️
Saying, obesity causes all these problems is like saying, skid marks cause accidents. There are always skid marks at an accident site so it must be the cause; right?! Obesity is just one more result, along with all the other health problems, of poor food choices. If you eat animal fat and protein, you will get most of these, self inflicted, lifestyle conditions.
Your comment makes no sense.
Ty for clearing the paradox up ❤
The oldest region in the world is located in Spain. In some rural regions in the interior of Orense, northern Spain, the number of centenarians triples that of Okinawa. According to a study by the University of Washington published in The Lancet in 2018, by 2040, projections place the life expectancy of Spaniards at 85.8 years. And there is no need to travel to the future: the centenarians of the small region of Ourense surpass the Japanese. “There are rates similar to those in Japan, or even higher, in the Galician city of Ourense,” says Ortega. The elderly people from Orense who blow out the candles with three figures on their cake have been increasing for more than five years. Last year, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE), centenarians in Galicia amounted to 1,823, more than 340 in Orense. This translates into a rate of 75 centenarians per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Galician Institute of Statistics. In some regions, such as Tierra de Celanova, the numbers shoot up to seven times the Spanish average: 252 centenarians per 100,000 people. Their main and usual diet is based on octopus, shellfish, animal entrails, pork, goat, cow, red wine, etc. ATLANTIC DIET
This is not an accurate description of their diet, the animal protein of which is mostly fish and shellfish.
❤ Thank you Dr. Greger and the Nutrition Facts staff and volunteers for my daily Stick With It health reminders! ❤
I think a few extra pounds is helpful for older women because they are not as likely to have osteoporosis which can be a killer if the woman breaks her hip. Again a few extra pounds is helpful if she becomes ill with say a virus that prevents eating for several weeks, and she loses 20 lbs she’s not dangerously thin. I am saying a few extra pounds (10 to 20) not 100.
I’m almost down to normal weight eating WFPB. However, it has involved a lot of going hungry. It is just not true that it can be done without counting and restricting calories. I did everything he said in HOW NOT TO DIET and GAINED WEIGHT. I’m still doing everything he says, EXCEPT, I count, restrict and go hungry. I really wish people would recognize there are people like me. I exist. All these doctors saying, if only those people ate like THIS (insert their favourite diet here), they wouldn’t have a problem with excess appetite, just pisses me off. My blood work looks very healthy, my weight is good and I’M HUNGRY.
If you are restricting calories too much, your body will accumulate fat to stave off starvation. This is something Greger has mentioned in books and videos. Also, have you been eating enough protein? Check out the Plant Based Dads channel to see how they’ve increased their plant-based protein levels to get more fit.
It has to be a u shaped curve. There is such a thing as undernutrition of course, just like there is a over nutrition. Also one factor is that body fat stores toxins, pesticides etc, which cause lots of problems. So being rather thin is probably optimal and being skinny probably not. The diet would have to be really well thought out and organic on a low calorie diet, and not many people check in detail what they eat.