Obesity ‘less dangerous to health than 40 years ago’

A new study from Denmark has offered evidence that being obese does not have the same negative impact on health that it did 40 years ago.

Conducted by the University of Copenhagen, the research – which involved more than 100,000 individuals – suggests that the excess risk of premature death associated with obesity has decreased over the past four decades.

Indeed, the increased risk of all-cause mortality associated with obesity compared to normal weight was actually shown to have dropped from 30 percent 1976-78 to zero per cent in 2003-13, while the optimal body mass index score associated with the lowest mortality rate has risen slightly.

Although the reason for this change is unknown, the results suggest there may be a need to revise the categories presently used to define overweight, which are based on data from before the 1990s.

Senior author Borge Nordestgaard, clinical professor at the University of Copenhagen, said: "Our results should not be interpreted as suggesting that now people can eat as much as they like … That said, maybe overweight people need not be quite as worried about their weight as before."