Risks of Being Over Weight

Research has found that being over weight is responsible for 216,000 premature deaths each year. Being over weight is one of the top three preventable causes of death in the US, right behind smoking and high blood pressure.

According to a press release from the Harvard School of Public Health, one of the most thorough studies so far to look at how diet and lifestyle contribute to premature death in the US, appears in the open-access journal of PLoS Medicine in April of 2009.

Researchers found a shocking number of preventable dietary and lifestyle risk factors that lead to premature death per year. These include:

Smoking: 467,00

High blood pressure: 395,000

Over weight-obesity: 216,000

Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000

High blood sugar: 190,000

High LDL cholesterol: 113,000

High dietary salt: 102,000

Low dietary omega-3 fatty acids: 84,000

High dietary trans fatty acids: 82,000

Alcohol use: 64,000

Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000

Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000

The study showed that all these deaths were premature and could have been preventable by reducing these risk factors though lifestyle changes.

Don’t let this information scare you; let it motivate you. If you need help living a healthier lifestyle keep visiting my website Fitness Contrarian.

Best – Mike Cola