The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Put down the nachos. Hold the pizza. And don’t even think about the cheesecake.

After reviewing reports that show obesity is not as lethal as once believed, public health experts still agree: Being overweight – even modestly so – is bad for you.

“The essential message remains the same. Obesity remains a public health problem,” said George Mensah, director of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

The conclusion comes after two reports published in April by federal researchers that left consumers with lots of new questions about diet and health. The findings: Deaths associated with being obese and moderately overweight were vastly overstated.

Does that mean the obesity crisis is over? Is a little overweight the new normal? Should public health experts recalculate measures of obesity like the popular body mass index?

“No,” to all of those questions, says David L. Katz, a public health professor at Yale University.

“Being healthy is different than being alive and being patched together with all kinds of surgeries and pharmaceuticals,” Katz said, noting that obesity-related diseases – including heart disease, diabetes, cancer – are costly and diminish the quality of life.

The latest reports left the Centers for Disease Control, non-profit health groups and the $42 billion diet industry defending themselves against accusations of creating an obesity crisis. And public health experts say the balance in the politics of obesity has shifted to give the food, beverage and some advocates a bigger voice.

Specifically, researchers writing in The Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that obesity kills nearly 112,000 Americans annually – down from estimates a year earlier of 400,000 deaths, a finding coauthored by CDC chief Julie Gerberding.

And for those battling a modest bulge, the report contained what seemed like liberating news: Those who are slightly overweight are at no more risk of dying than individuals who are of normal weight.

But after a month of reflection, health experts said people should not slip into complacency. The modestly overweight still have a higher risk of obesity-related diseases and are often actively gaining pounds and over time become obese.

“Most people who are overweight are continuing to gain weight over a lifetime,” said Jo Ann Carson, a professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Indeed, one of the principal authors of the latest studies said her study only addresses mortality rates and not overall health. “I would not say that overweight is the best place to be,” said Katherine Flegal, a senior research scientist at the CDC’s National Center of Health Statistics.

Carson is among many experts nationwide trying to make sense of the new research. She notes that treatments for cholesterol, hypertension and other ailments associated with obesity may be extending lives.

And the new therapies are working for both the overweight and those who are obese.

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” said Flegal, a doctorate in nutrition and epidemiology.

Mensah explained why the latest studies yielded different results.

He said the CDC research showing 400,000 annual deaths from obesity were derived from 1970s population statistics. But the latest studies used 1980s and 1990s statistics, which reflect some of the benefits of recent life-sustaining treatments.

In each case, Mensah said, the CDC used the most-current statistics.

“We regret the confusion that is out there in the public,” he said.

He acknowledged that his agency has done a poor job explaining the findings to the public but denies that the agency overstated the obesity crisis for political reasons.

“You will not hear us say that obesity causes 400,000 deaths. We now have better information,” Mensah said. “(But) we have continued to speak out about obesity and being overweight as much as we can.”

The CDC is not the only one on the defensive. Groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest also are defending advocacy work.

“We have never made obesity the sole rationale for the policies that we are working on,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Washington group, which advocates for nutrition, health and food safety.

Barry Glassner, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California, said the confusion can be attributed to the well-honed practice of creating panics in American culture. He said the obesity scare is similar to panics about drugs in the 1980s and youth crime in the 1990s when crime rates were declining.

“There are legitimate concerns about obesity, but there is a panic about being overweight,” said Glassner, who penned a book about panics called “Culture of Fear” and has finished another on food beliefs.

He argues that panics are partly fueled by interest groups that benefit from scaring the public. In this case, he points to the diet industry, as well as non-profit groups and government agencies that rely on federal funds. (For the 2006 fiscal year, the Bush administration is proposing to spend $480 million on anti-obesity efforts.)

“The losers are people who have been falsely led to believe that if they pay their money and change their lifestyle they will reap long-term benefits,” Glassner said. “In some cases, it is true, and in many cases, it is not.”

Eric Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago said the uproar has changed the balance in obesity politics – tilting against those who argue the nation is waddling into a health crisis bigger than tobacco.

“There has been a definite campaign to promote the idea that there is an obesity epidemic,” said Oliver, who recently finished a book titled “Obesity: The Making of An American Epidemic.”

After the last month’s reports, the Center for Consumer Freedom, which receives funds from the food and beverage industry, published critical full-page newspaper ads. “Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity myths by the “food police,’ trial lawyers and even our own government.”

And newspapers like the Rocky Mountain News suggested in editorials that Gerberding should resign. “Why aren’t there calls in Congress for her to quit?” the Denver newspaper wrote. “Gerberding didn’t merely over hype a crisis, after all. She helped invent one.”

It is too early to know how all this sorts out, Oliver said. But he is certain the debate has shifted, noting public health officials are under new pressure to produce credible research.

“The obesity mafia are very defensive and are marshaling their forces to maintain that obesity is a problem,” he said.