Is losing weight an important health goal?

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Weight and health have been talked about as one and the same. But experts say their relationship is more complicated.

 

(Madelaine Holcombe/ CNN News) — Accepting your body as it is and stopping all the dieting may sound great, but would doing so hurt your health?

Advertisements, pop culture and even doctors can talk about health and weight as if they are one and the same: smaller bodies are healthier, and larger bodies must be unhealthy.

But neither health nor bodies are that simple and uniform, and health can vary from person to person said Jeanette Thompson-Wessen, a nutritionist in the United Kingdom whose approach doesn’t focus on weight loss.

A higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with conditions like diabetes and heart disease, said Philipp Scherer, professor of internal medicine and director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. (…)

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