It seems that doctors have found that being about 25 pounds overweight can help a person survive certain illnesses better. Here’s the story from MSNBC: Being a little heavy may have some benefits

But being merely overweight — having a BMI between 25 and 30 — did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease or any kind of cancer.

Also surprising was that overweight people were up to about 40 percent less likely than normal-weight people to die from several other causes including emphysema, pneumonia, injuries and various infections. The age group that seemed to benefit most from a little extra padding were people aged 25 to 59; older overweight people had reduced risks for these diseases, too.

Given our obsession with waifish super models and the like, this is an interesting finding. While the study pointed out that being over 30 BMI increases the risk of serious illness, just a little bit of extra padding isn’t going to cause you to keel over tomorrow. So you can go ahead and indulge in that Homestyle Melt or Country Breakfast Burrito from time to time and not feel so bad about doing it. Just eat reasonably healthy and exercise a bit and you’ll be fine. No reason to starve yourself thin.

You may not even need to diet like crazy to get a mate. Here’s bluesman Willie Dixon explaining it in his song Built for Comfort. Oops, the original video got pulled. Here’s John Primer performing the same song and turning in a smokin’ blues guitar solo too.

I just love a post where I can talk about food and music at the same time.

So, are you built for comfort or are you built for speed?

Food, Music
blues, Built For Comfort, eating, eating disorders, Health, overweight, willie dixon