Indulgences like sodas and junk foods have long been blamed as the prime culprits responsible for worrying obesity trends across the United States. But a new analysis by a pair of Cornell University researchers suggests that for most people those food and drink choices may not be the scourge of the American waistline as commonly imagined.
The study by professors David Just and Brian Wansink of Cornell’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management re-examined national data from 2007-08 describing people’s food habits based on their body mass index (BMI). For all but the most overweight and underweight individuals, the consumption of soda, candy and fast food showed no correlation to BMI.
The findings upend the seemingly self-evident conclusion that consuming unhealthy foods is the cause of high rates of obesity. According to Just, previous studies reporting a positive correlation between indulgent foods and weight status at the population level failed to take into account the distorting effects from the roughly five percent of people who are either chronically underweight or morbidly obese.
For the rest of the 95 percent of the population, the consumption of those indulgent foods and beverages showed no significant difference between the habits of healthy weight and overweight individuals.
Read the rest of the story at the Cornell Chronicle
