“…Professor Rod Jackson, an University of Auckland epidemiologist, says there is a widespread misunderstanding among doctors, medical students and the public about obesity and the risk of diseased blood vessels.
When he gives talks about vascular health, he asks his audiences to rank the top five risk factors.
“Obesity and overweight almost always come in the top one or two and yet they should be in the bottom one or two.”
He says the biggies are raised levels of bad cholesterol (associated with eating saturated fats -
- which predominate in butter, most meat fats, palm oil and coconut oil) -
- elevated blood pressure (linked to excess salt intake) -
- and smoking.
Raised glucose levels comes fourth.
“Overweight is quite a long way down.
It’s not in the same category as those.
How overweight would you need to be [to reach] the equivalent of smoking –
- smoking is the same as being 40 to 50kg overweight.”..”
(cont..)
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