One of the things that really irks me on the Internet is research that is cited without any reference. I am still trying to track this Finnish study down… Let me know if you know of the actual study….
Although a “one percent” increased risk for every 2.2 pounds gained may not seem like much, Plavix — the second most widely prescribed drug in the world — is only .05% better than aspirin. (It benefits one out of every 200 people, at a cost equivalent of $200,000 per heart event avoided.) This essentially suggests that taking Plavix is as effective as losing one pound….
Or, say the cost of a heart attack is $1,000,000 (although I don’t know anyone who would take that amount of money, since about half of them are fatal.) So for every two pounds lost you are saving roughly $5000, about $1 per calorie or $100 for not eating that slice of bread.
(Of course, this logic is a bit fallacious because you can’t lose 220 pounds and reduce your chances by 100%, but it does suggest that weight gain is very, very expensive and not worth the risk.)
Put another way, would you engage in behavior that would increase your chance of having a heart attack by 10%? (= If you are 20 pounds overweight.) That is a bit like “decimation”– shooting every tenth person. That would be very, very scary.
A Finnish study showed that for every one kilogram (2.2 pounds) increase in body weight, the risk of death from coronary artery disease increased by one percent. In patients who have already had a heart attack, obesity is associated with an increased likelihood of a second heart attack.
