Obesity loses place as second biggest killer of Americans

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By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 24/04/2005)

A political food fight has broken out in America after obesity was downgraded from the country's biggest killer after smoking to seventh place. Analysis by government scientists shows that far fewer people than thought die from being fat.

Their findings - that 112,000 people are killed by obesity each year, rather than the 400,000 calculated by the US Centre for Disease Control last year - comes as a blow to "nanny state" activists seeking tighter regulation of the food industry and lawyers acting for fat clients.

The figures also suggest that 87,000 lives were saved because people were moderately overweight: mainly older people who were less frail. Only extreme obesity carries a severe death risk.

Radley Balko, who specialises in "nanny culture" at the Washington-based Cato Institute, said that the revised estimate would boost those who thought health and diet were a matter of personal choice, not state regulation.

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