A few extra pounds may be healthy

This is common knowledge almost everywhere in country-side Europe. Just look at all the fat grandma's, living only on purely organic vegetables, honey, wine and olives (or olive oil). They get much older (I know a few very healthy ones well over 90 years old) and live a healthier life than the thin city people dying at 70.

This doe not say that looking like a whale is good. Also it does not excuse the (mostly) Americans, getting fat on fast-food and soda sugars. They'll die pretty quick, causing huge costs in the insurance systems in the process.

A lot of the latest research has been challenging assumptions about health. This research shows that being a little overweight (and that woman in the picture is NOT a little overweight, she's obese) is okay, and possibly even good. There was other research out recently that showed that there is little to no correlation between cholesterol levels (HDL or LDL) and heart diseasee (in fact lowering cholesterol levels increases the chance of death from other diseases).

If you look at the classic Greek and Roman sculptures the Olympic athletes of their time all had a bit of a tummy on them, and these were guys who were fitter than any of us. Ignore the modern art, google the original greek sculptures and while you might see a 2-pack you won't see a single six-pack, and you'll see lots of Olympic athletes of the time sported nice bumps.

It's time for us to stop being programmed by the media into thinking that the ideal body shape for a 30+ year old is the same one you had when you were 16, that's just ridiculous. It used to be that the media just tried to convince girls that they should look the same at 30 as they did at 16, but now they're doing it to boys too, and it's simply unhealthy.

I always worry about being an "anonymous fatty body" in articles like this ....

The woman walking down the street in the photo is carrying more than a few extra pounds.

A "few extra pounds" could not possibly mean obese but it is definitely possible to be fat AND fit.