Obesity Poses Larger Diabetes Risk than Inactivity
(NY, Reuters Health, 2/2/07)

Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and team, tracked 68,907 female Nurses' Health Study participants for 16 years. Women in the current study had no history of diabetes at the onset. Comparing the subjects to physically active women who had a healthy weight, the researchers determined that slender women, even if they are inactive, have a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes than obese women. The scientists conclude that, although obesity and inactivity each raise the risk of type-2 diabetes, obesity appears to be the stronger of these two factors.

(Diabetes Care, January 2007)