Study finds risks for the barely overweight

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Bad news for all those Baby Boomers starting to pile on the pounds as they go through middle age: You don't have to be obese -- just a little overweight -- to increase your risk of dying prematurely, according to a large government study.

The 10-year study of more than 500,000 U.S. adults found that those who were just slightly overweight in their 50s were 20 to 40 percent more likely to die in the next decade. Another study involving more than 1 million Korean adults, also being published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, produced similar results.

The studies, both released Tuesday, were aimed at helping resolve a long debate over whether the millions of Americans who are not obese but are nevertheless considered overweight are at significant risk.

"These findings are very important," said Michael Leitzmann of the National Cancer Institute, which led the U.S. study. "A substantial proportion of the population in the U.S. is overweight. So if overweight is related to premature death, that's very important to public health."

Eating less calories is rather important.