To put it in a less allegorical way, researchers from Harvard's School of Public Health convened a conference today to plug a huge hole in their obesity-hyping campaign. A USA Today article titled "Obesity: Time Bomb or Dud" previewed the conclave. It quotes Harvard's Walter Willett (the Darth Vader of obesity hypers, perhaps?) attempting to downplay the significance of a landmark study which lowered the number of obesity and overweight-attributable deaths from 400,000 to 26,000. He insisted: "These results are completely misleading." But we were there to shed light on the matter. The paper quoted us saying:
Obesity hysteria is finally receiving the scrutiny it disserves. The CDC's numbers show being very obese is a genuine concern, but it only affects the heaviest 10%. For everyone else the risk of death has been greatly exaggerated.
Even so, it's clear the obesity Stormtroopers are loading up with a new salvo of research to strike fear in the hearts of galaxies -- both local and far, far away. So stay tuned for Episode II tomorrow, when we continue our fight in the Fat Wars.