The Register: 'Being fat is no worse for you than being a woman'

Good news from The Register:

The widely-discredited Body Mass Index (BMI) method of measuring how fat a person is took another hammering today. Scientists in the USA have announced a study showing that an "overweight" BMI is not linked to poor health at all, and even an "obese" rating seems to be nothing to worry about for under-40s.
...

British and American health authorities class someone as "overweight" if their BMI lies between 25 and 30, and "obese" after that. BMI statistics underlie the vast majority of "obesity epidemic" headlines, and are often used by the healthcare industry to justify soaring costs.

But according to Jarrett, "overweight" people don't get ill or require medical treatment any more often than "normal" ones. Even the "obese" show no difference until past the age of 40.

...
In fact, normal-BMI US women over 40 are almost as likely to be on medication as obese-BMI men: the proportions are 57 and 61 per cent respectively. It would seem that simply being female is pretty much as bad for you - and as expensive for society to pay for - as being a fat man.

There you have it.