Yesterday I happened to be listening to Wis. Public Radio and they were
interviewing a Doctor who worked for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in
Milwaukee. It is his job to develop risk tables for NML based upon many
factors.

His main problem with the CDC's catigorizations of underweight and
overweight based on BMI was that they had no "transition zone" before a
person was catagorized as being overweight. His thoughts are that when your
BMI is in the 25 to 27 range that you are in a transition phase and are not
as high risk as the CDC claims.

As his work includes many more variables than just weight, he also takes
into account these other factors when createing his tables. He mentioned
that just one other positive life factor, such as not smokeing, can lower an
overweight persons mortality rate to match say that of a smoker who was in
the normal BMI range.

http://www.drbobgleeson.com/ is his web site, I haven't read or bought any
of his material, I just noted that he was an interesting person to listen to
knowing that he worked for NML, a company who myself and many family members
have policies with.

Jim