European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 31, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The cult of thinness what at what is most desirable by Erik Eckholm new York times a controversy Over the safety of moderate weight gains in Middle age has been set off by a Federal researchers Challenge of the prevailing medical View that lifelong efforts to stay lean Are Best for lowest death rates Are associated with leanness in the 20s followed by a moderate weight gain into Middle contends the Reubin clinical director of the gerontology research Center of the National Institute on this in the weight pattern of most he has the support of some leading at the Center of the debate Are the venerable height and weight tables compiled by the metropolitan life insurance the company listings of desirable weights have been a and not infrequently a source of for recent generations of body conscious the weight ranges in the tables Are said to be associated with the lowest death the researchers new analysis of actuarial statistics indicates that the weight ranges recommended by the insurance which Are widely circulated by doctors and have been embossed on countless Penny Are too High for Young too Low for Middle aged and older and just right for those in their Early with the backing of other medical especially those who treat the Andres disputes the accepted Wisdom that individuals should try to maintain the same weight throughout their adult in another break with tradition Andres recommends the same weight goals for men and women of the same according to his a 5foot 11inch Man or woman in his or her 20s should weigh Between 126 and 171 in the 40s the same person should weigh 149 to 190 pounds and in the 172 to 213 according to the 1983 metropolitan life tables a Man of that height 25 to 59 years old should weigh 144 to 183 depending on body and a woman of the same height should weigh 135 to 176 for some reason the idea has grabbed us that the Best weight throughout the life Span is that of a 20 Andres said in a recent but Charles Walter theres just overwhelming evidence now that As you go through life its in your Best interests to Lay Down some a majority of experts on obesity and on cardiovascular diseases a panel of authorities on obesity convened last february by the National Institute of health declined to embrace Andres instead emphasizing that a body weight of 20 percent or More above desirable body weight constitutes an established health an Nih official said desirable weight in this Case referred to the midpoint of the ranges in the metropolitan life the which expressed special concern about the increasing frequency of obesity in children and refused to endorse the notion of adding poundage with the experts on both sides of the debate warn against making peace with a Beer belly or executive recent evidence indicates that the Abdomen May be the most dangerous place on the body to add emphasizing the importance of prudent nutrition and exercise at any the experts also agree that excess pounds in the Early decades of life Are especially increasing the risk of cardiovascular Theodore Van an obesity specialist at Columbia University who helped organize the Nih said his own recent studies indicate that being overweight is most harmful before the age of but he said it is still a threat in later years and he does not advocate the weight gains permitted in the new tables of some critics say both sets of weight which Are both based on mortality overstate the hazards of leanness because of two smokers tend to be thinner than so their heightened death rates resulting from cigarette use skew the making higher weights appear healthier than they really Are for people with fatal diseases May be resulting in an association of mortality with thinness that is not relevant to healthy but Andres said his review of the literature showed that mortality associated with different weights changed with age in the same pattern for both non smokers and he also said that severely ill people were excluded from several of the studies he metropolitan life first provided tables based on correlations Between weight and mortality in Ideal weight ranges were provided separately for healthy men and women according to with no breakdown by a 1959 revision labelled the recommended weights As while the 1983 which provided weight goals several pounds higher than the previous was simply labelled height weight tables for Page 16 the stars and stripes August 1985