Obesity and Diabetes: Why There Is No Obesity Paradox

Recent studies suggesting that heavier people with diabetes have lower death rates than normal weight patients may be a myth. A strong body of research shows that being overweight or obese puts people at risk for chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even early death. A 2012 study published in the journal JAMA, for example, studied 2,625 people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, of which only 12% were normal weight. But the larger people with diabetes lived longer than their thinner peers.