It should be called the &quot;slightly overweight paradox&quot;.<p>Article makes lots of qualitative statements. Much easier to look at the data (900,000 person study): <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2662372&#x2F;figure&#x2F;fig2&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2662372&#x2F;figure&#x2F;f...</a><p>Optimal BMI appears to be 23-25 (at least for minimising the risk of death).<p>Another large study (1.46 million people) shows a similar result: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC3066051&#x2F;figure&#x2F;F1&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC3066051&#x2F;figure&#x2F;F...</a><p>Looking at either side of optimal BMI: People with a BMI of 26 (BMI 25-30 &#x27;overweight&#x27;) have mildly better survival than those with 21 (18.5-25 &#x27;normal&#x27;). Push BMI up a little bit to above 28 and death rates are worse than with a BMI of 21. Not a huge paradox. Maybe we should just shift &#x27;normal&#x27; BMI range to 20-27.