Fatness and Heart Disease

The least sugar-coated (that'll be funny in a moment) health news I've seen recently is the relationship between waist size and precursors of heart disease:

Several studies have shown waist size is clearly linked with heart attack, stroke and heart disease risk. U.S. government guidelines now say men should aim to have a waist 40 inches in circumference or less — 35 inches for a woman.

The Dallas researchers found no absolute cutoff. They simply found that the smaller a person's waist, the clearer his or her arteries were observed to be.

Reading the abstract, it's clear that the journalist got the story wrong. (Is anyone surprised by this anymore?) It's actually the waist-to-hip ratio, not waist circumference, that is best correlated.

Alas, not willing to shell out the $15 to read the full article, this is all I've got on the subject. Being fat is unhealthy, and journalists are sloppy. You didn't learn anything new; I know, I know… cut me some slack, it's been a busy week. :)