(AP) -- NEW YORK (AP) - Lugging around a few extra pounds? A new government study finds that you don't have to be obese to raise your risk of premature death. Merely being overweight carries some risk, too.
Obesity increases the risk of death but whether being merely overweight contributes to an early death as well has been uncertain and controversial. Some research has suggested being a little pudgy has little effect or can even be a good thing.
The latest research involved about 1.5 million people. It concluded that healthy white adults who were overweight were slightly more likely to die during the time they were followed in the study than those whose weight was in an ideal range.
The study is in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
