Extreme fat photos may undermine message on overweight risk

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Photos of morbidly obese people alongside a news story about the health threat from being overweight may cause moderately heavy people to think they’re not at risk, a new study suggests. “I don’t know if we can realistically influence media choices,” said coauthor Fiona Gillison. Some stories included an image of an overweight model, others had a morbidly obese model and some had no image. A BMI of 30 or greater is considered obese and a BMI over 40 is severely or morbidly obese.