Eli5: if obesity is so unhealthy, why do countries with high obesity rates such as US and UK generally have higher average lifespans than many countries with lower obesity rates?

Question

Eli5: if obesity is so unhealthy, why do countries with high obesity rates such as US and UK generally have higher average lifespans than many countries with lower obesity rates?

In: 2

Answer 1

We have the medical advances to keep people alive—aka, heart beating, breathing, brain activity well beyond what people with many diseases were previously capable of.

But measuring “amount of time being technically alive” and “quality of life” are two vastly different things.