Obesity to cut 2 to 5 years off live span

Study: Obesity to cut 2 to 5 years off live span
CHICAGO - New and disputed research adds a twist to the Social Security dilemma, suggesting that a nation gorging itself on bacon double-cheeseburgers will one day dramatically shorten the average U.S. life span.

Obesity - especially its alarming rise among children - is the culprit, fueling a startling reversal in life expectancy, which likely will drop by two to five years or more within 50 years, according to a report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

This would reverse the mostly steady increase in American life expectancy that has occurred in the past two centuries. It could even inadvertently "save" Social Security, but the tremendous price would be higher death rates and escalating health care costs, said lead author S. Jay Olshansky, a longevity researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.