Being Overweight isn't unhealthy

From the WP "Being overweight boosts the risk of dying from diabetes and kidney disease but not cancer or heart disease, and carrying some extra pounds actually appears to protect against a host of other causes of death, federal researchers reported yesterday." (HT Instapundit)

From the NYT "About two years ago, a group of federal researchers reported that overweight people have a lower death rate than people who are normal weight, underweight or obese."

If this turns out to be true then the entire field of nutrition should be abolished for providing us with such poor information in the past. It should then be left to people very well trained in messy statistics (such as economists) to evaluate the health consequences of different diets.