From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
New research shows that overweight or even mildly obese people have a lower risk of early death than people considered to be normal weight.
新研究表明，超重或一般肥胖者早死的几率比正常体重的人要小。
Researchers examined the results of 97 studies. Most of the studies were less than 10 years old. They included almost three million adults from around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Brazil, India and Mexico.
研究者审查了 97项研究的研究，这些研究大多是在 10年内完成的，涉及全世界近 3000000的人，包括美国、加拿大、中国、巴西、印度和墨西哥。
The researchers work at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
这些研究者就职于美国疾病控制与预防中心下属的国家卫生统计中心。
They found that people who are considered overweight or slightly obese were five to six percent less likely to die from all causes than people of normal weight. People with higher obesity ratings, however, had almost a 30 percent greater risk of death compared to normal-weight individuals.
他们发现，超重或轻度肥胖者死于各种原因的可能性比正常体重者要低 5-6%，然而，与正常体重者相比，更加肥胖者的死亡率要高近 30%。
Katherine Flegal was the lead author of the study. She says she was surprised that overweight people would not have a higher risk of death.
凯瑟琳·弗莱戈是该研究的首席作者，她说令自己吃惊的是，超重者的死亡率并不是更高。
“ Because we’ d actually already read a lot of this literature and realized it was likely that[ mortality rates for] overweight would be at least not higher than normal weight. I guess I was a little bit surprised that it was definitely lower. And I was also surprised that the lower rates of obesity also didn’ t seem to differ from normal weight.”
“我们阅读了大量此类文献，发现超重者的死亡率并不比正常体重者高，我吃惊的是甚至还更低些，轻微肥胖者似乎和一般体重者的死亡风险差不多，这让我很惊讶。”
But she says the difference in death rates appears to be small between normal-weight people and those who are overweight or mildly obese.
她说，正常体重者和超重或轻度肥胖者的死亡率差异似乎很小。
The study has raised new questions about“ body mass index,” or BMI. This is a measurement of body fat as a ratio of height to weight. BMI guidelines were used as a basis for the study. In recent years, many public health experts have promoted body mass index as a way to predict the risk of health problems. But a person's BMI can be misleading in some cases.
研究还提出了“体质指数” (BMI)这样的新概念，用来衡量身体脂肪与体重的比例。 BMI原则是这次研究的基础，最近几年，许多公众健康专家都提出以体质指数所谓预测健康问题的手段，但一个人的体质指数有时会导致误区。
Steven Heymsfield is the executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He says people can be physically fit and in good health, but might weigh more because they are more muscular.
史蒂文·赫穆斯菲尔德是位于路易斯安那巴吞鲁日的潘宁顿生物医学研究中心的执行董事，他说可能有的人身体健康但超微超重，这是因为他们的肌肉较多。
“ It’s very common in the military, for example, where you have young men and women who are very physically fit - - their BMI can be a little higher. And so the military knows that, and they check people with body fat measurement if they exceed the BMI guideline.”
“比如这在部队就很常见，那里的男女兵都很健康，但他们的 BMI可能会略高。所以，军队明白这一点，就会衡量他们的身体脂肪，看书否超过 BMI原则。”
Still, Dr. Heymsfield says people should not think gaining extra weight is OK just because of the new findings. He says being at a healthy weight lowers the risk for heart disease and diabetes. He and a colleague wrote an editorial that appeared along with the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
赫穆斯菲尔德说，虽然有了这些新发现，这并意味着就可以视超重为好事。他说要保持健康的体重能降低心脏病和糖尿病的几率，他和同事合作撰写的有关这项研究的文章发表在《美国医学协会杂志》上。
