by Fiona Mather

Created on: February 02, 2009

It is a misnomer that the word slim is taken to mean healthy, the word slim does not mean healthy it just means slim. Being thin does not indicate that a person is therefore automatically healthier than a slightly overweight person, or indeed a person who is the right weight for their height. Although being overweight, obese or morbidly obese will pose risks to health so too can being slim. Also worth pointing out is that even if a person is deemed as being the right weight this does not signify total health.

It is a common misconception that being thin is healthy. There are as many health risks for thin people as there are for fat people. A person might be pre-disposed genetically to being thin, however a thin person can still be unhealthy. Even at the right weight there can be problems such as high cholesterol, arthritis, atherosclerosis, and many other health risks which should not be associated with fat people only.

Being slim and or being underweight means that a woman is more at risk of developing osteoporosis, (brittle bones) than a fat, or slightly overweight woman, for example. A thin person can still have problems with high cholesterol which can lead to atherosclerosis, fat deposits in the arteries. So although a slim person may be perceived to be healthy on the outside this might not be the case within the body. Slim people have strokes and heart attacks too.

While it may be easier to address the problems caused by obesity, it is not as easy to address the problems that thin people may have because they may perceive themselves to be healthy just because they are thin. So it can be very difficult to suggest to a thin person that they may have health issues.

Arthritis effects slim and fat people alike. Cancer does not care that someone is fat, thin or medium build. Thin people may be at a disadvantage if they are to contract a disease, virus, infection or autoimmune disease or cancer as having little or no fat reserves could lead to disastrous outcomes.

It is well known that often the first people to die in concentration camps during wars are tall thin people as they have difficulty maintaining their metabolism as all their energy is used to keep their body ticking over, these people need vast amounts of food. However I digress as this is a different problem in itself .

So therefore I would say that no, slim people are not really healthier than fat people.

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