# What has claimed the most lives: Obesity or Alcohol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315 "2010-04-16T06:20:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/1 "2010-04-16T06:20:42Z")
My best friend is concerned by my drinking and is somewhat condescending about it. She is obese, yet I don’t constantly harp on her about that. Anyone know which is worse, or is it like comparing apples to oranges? I’d gladly quit drinking if she lost a hundred pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/2 "2010-04-16T06:24:38Z")
What’s her weight got to do with your drinking? Either you’d be better off cutting back or not, independently of her obesity. ETA: Sorry, that doesn’t really address your question, so I suppose it doesn’t belong in GQ. I don’t know the answer to your question. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/3 "2010-04-16T06:29:30Z")
Historically? Unquestionably alcohol abuse. It’s only recently that a/ there has been sufficient availability of enough food for widespread obesity to exist and /b people have lived long enough for it to have had epidemiological effect. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/4 "2010-04-16T06:44:56Z")
I read [an article](http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/obesity-is-now-more-deadly-than-smoking-20100408-rv5l.html) related to this the other day. The study was done in Western Australia, but it might do until someone comes along with better information: > [@](#): > > OBESITY has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of premature death and illness in Australia > > … > > New figures from Western Australia, which are expected to be echoed across Australia, show the contribution of excessive weight to ill health has more than doubled in just six years, and by 2006 accounted for 8.7 per cent of all disease. Tobacco’s role has fallen by a quarter, and now causes 6.5 per cent of illness and early death. So if obesity is number 1 and smoking is number 2 in preventable deaths, then alcohol is at best number 3. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/5 "2010-04-16T07:01:40Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > What’s her weight got to do with your drinking? Either you’d be better off cutting back or not, independently of her obesity. > > ETA: Sorry, that doesn’t really address your question, so I suppose it doesn’t belong in GQ. I don’t know the answer to your question. Nothing. And she’d be better off cutting back eating, independently of my drinking. Guess I just got a bug because she was needling me about an unhealthy habit of mine, while I feel that hers is just as unhealthy, if not more so. That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/6 "2010-04-16T07:33:51Z")
God help all the fat alcoholics out there. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/7 "2010-04-16T07:38:54Z")
Very few people die in car wrecks caused by overweight drivers. First of all, you’re asking the wrong question. The question isn’t which kills more people - that’s simply a function of how many people there are who are in each category. You mean to ask, which condition is more likely to kill an individual. It seems odd that if someone is worried about your drinking, your reaction is to think, “Oh, yeah? Well, you’re fat.” ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/8 "2010-04-16T08:07:32Z")
This calculator should answer for you. I presume it to be based on accurate information. > **[Life Expectancy Calculator](https://www.bankrate.com/retirement/life-expectancy-calculator/)** > > Bankrate.com provides a FREE tax advantaged investment calculator and other retirement calculators to determine how much is needed to save and invest for retirement. Simply for my own edification, I’ve gone through and tried to match the format of [this chart on obesity](http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2006/06/will_you_really.html) below. I am taking \<2 drinks per day as the baseline and assuming a woman who is 5’4", weighs 120 pounds, and does not smoke. ```auto Horizontal: Current Age Vertical: Average Alcohol Consumption per Day Cell Data: Average number of years gained/lost of life 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s None -2.6 -2.6 -2.5 -2.5 -2.2 -1.9 <2 drinks per day 0 0 0 0 0 0 3+, 1+ times per week -4.7 -4.6 -4.5 -4.3 -3.9 -3.3 3-5, 3+ times per week -9.1 -8.9 -8.6 -8.1 -7.3 -6.0 ``` Essentially, obesity can vary from 0 to 13 years. Alcohol can vary from 0 to 9.1 years. The actual figure will depend on the individual. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/9 "2010-04-16T09:46:58Z")
Alcohol’s effects are more immediate and much more obvious. Plus you’re liable to harm someone else a lot easier. Drunk driver’s kill people, how many people do the obsese kill? 😃 Both are not healthy but it can takes years and years of being overweight to show any visable health issues. Alcohol is more obvious. This is especially true when you consider the contrast. A fat person is fat. They don’t change back and forth. An alcoholic can be fine and then an hour later, drunk and abusive, then by morning back to the norm. OK you see the effects and the changes in an alcholic much easier, than obese person. A person gets drunk and yells at her kid. We see that as clear abuse, but an overweight lady can’t play with her kids and sits inside all day, instead of doing things with her kids. Now that’s not exactly abuse, but still it shows in both cases the parent is not attending to her child because of a condition. Only the first reason is much more clearly cut and dry ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/10 "2010-04-16T11:56:19Z")
It’s too bad there isn’t data for how badly the average person functions that shortens their life by either way. Alcohol also impedes the brain when not drinking for the alcoholic. I’ve known a person that had the shakes all the time and their IQ was going down steadily. What these people do when drunk is even worse. He couldn’t figure out how to open a door using the door knob one time. ---
**Author:** ![Quidsane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a9a28c/32.png) [@Quidsane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quidsane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/11 "2010-04-16T12:26:35Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Historically? Unquestionably alcohol abuse. It’s only recently that a/ there has been sufficient availability of enough food for widespread obesity to exist and /b people have lived long enough for it to have had epidemiological effect. Not in the U.S.:eek: \*From 2001–2005, there were approximately **79,000 deaths annually** attributable to excessive alcohol use. In fact, excessive alcohol use is the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for people in the United States each year. \* from here: [http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/](http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/) _June 14, 2005 - Obesity is related to about **112,000 deaths each year** in the United States._ from here: [http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/r050615.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/r050615.htm) > [@Markxxx](#): > > Drunk driver’s kill people, how many people do the obsese kill? 😃 Obese people kill _themselves_. > [@Markxxx](#): > > An alcoholic can be fine and then an hour later, drunk and abusive, then by morning back to the norm. While _alcoholic_ and _drunk_ go hand in hand, _alcoholic_ does not necessarily equal _abusive_. > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Alcohol also impedes the brain when not drinking for the alcoholic. An obese person’s brain impedes their life by not telling them to put the fork down.😃 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/12 "2010-04-16T12:32:58Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Alcohol’s effects are more immediate and much more obvious. Plus you’re liable to harm someone else a lot easier. Drunk driver’s kill people, how many people do the obsese kill? 😃 … Actually, since the obese represent, say, 30% of the US population, they probably represent about 30% of the drivers in all acidents. And therefore the obese use their cars to kill some 10,000 Americans per year. Now whether the obesity is a \*contributory \*factor is another thing. Unike alchohol, IMO the answer is “probably not a statistically significant amount.” Grasping at straws here, I’d bet the obese are less good at twisting around to really look over their shoulder before lane changes. And they are mmore likely to suffer sudden incapacitation while driving. But not enough to make a real difference. Bottom line: I’m poking at sloppy language here, not trying to say obesity is a road hazard. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/13 "2010-04-16T13:11:01Z")
I don’t think it’s fair to lump in drunk driving deaths in this kind of debate. An obese person can also just as easily kill someone in a car accident, perhaps by dropping a burger under the seat? I think the OP was mainly asking about direct health-related concerns due to obesity versus alcohol, and not about subsequent bad judgments made by partaking in such activities. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/14 "2010-04-16T16:33:05Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > I don’t think it’s fair to lump in drunk driving deaths in this kind of debate. An obese person can also just as easily kill someone in a car accident, perhaps by dropping a burger under the seat? > > I think the OP was mainly asking about direct health-related concerns due to obesity versus alcohol, and not about subsequent bad judgments made by partaking in such activities. Dead is dead. If something is a contributing factor to your death, you don’t really care whether it was direct or indirect. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/15 "2010-04-16T21:30:09Z")
What is the default death on the form when they have dead fat alcoholics? ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/16 "2010-04-16T23:30:30Z")
Boy did I phrase that wrong. And, believe, me it wasn’t, “You drink too much! Well, you’re too fat!” I guess my question should have been “Which is more deadly to the individual? To be obese or to drink too much?” That’s still awkward, though! ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/17 "2010-04-16T23:31:34Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > I don’t think it’s fair to lump in drunk driving deaths in this kind of debate. An obese person can also just as easily kill someone in a car accident, perhaps by dropping a burger under the seat? > > I think the OP was mainly asking about direct health-related concerns due to obesity versus alcohol, and not about subsequent bad judgments made by partaking in such activities. Yes. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/18 "2010-04-18T14:28:20Z")
> [@Kayeby](#): > > I read [an article](http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/obesity-is-now-more-deadly-than-smoking-20100408-rv5l.html) related to this the other day. The study was done in Western Australia, but it might do until someone comes along with better information: > So if obesity is number 1 and smoking is number 2 in preventable deaths, then alcohol is at best number 3. But that really doesn’t address the question because there could be far more obese people than alcoholics. If that were true (and this is just a WAG) alcoholism could be far more deadly of a condition, but fortunately there are fewer alcoholics leading it to be ranked down to #3. Oh, and Hazel, even though we were supposed to run away together and you ditched me, I will still offer you nice advice 🙂 Whether or not your friend is overweight is irrelevant on whether or not you are drinking too much. You don’t get extra life points by winning an argument. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/19 "2010-04-18T14:41:51Z")
Historically alcohol. It has been a killer since the first man crushed grapes. Obesity is something new but equally deadly. I don’t remember it being a problem until the last 50 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315/20 "2010-04-18T19:21:04Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > But that really doesn’t address the question because there could be far more obese people than alcoholics. If that were true (and this is just a WAG) alcoholism could be far more deadly of a condition, but fortunately there are fewer alcoholics leading it to be ranked down to #3. > > Oh, and Hazel, even though we were supposed to run away together and you ditched me, I will still offer you nice advice 🙂 Whether or not your friend is overweight is irrelevant on whether or not you are drinking too much. You don’t get extra life points by winning an argument. 😉 We were? I did? And, thank you. Also, have a great birthday tomorrow! 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-claimed-the-most-lives-obesity-or-alcohol/536315.md?page=2)