Age Study Finds Thinner Is Better

One of the biggest studies ever to look at the effects of weight on longevity concludes that thinner is definitely better at almost all ages. It found that being too heavy seems to shorten life expectancy up to about age 75. After that, being big doesn’t seem to make much difference, unless people are really obese. “The weight associated with the lowest mortality was quite low, even lower than I had hoped it would be,” said nutritionist June Stevens of the University of North Carolina, an author of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.