Congratulations to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts for their 29-17 Super Bowl win over the Chicago Bears. A victory in the Big Game is normally accompanied by hometown parades, trips to Disneyworld, and — at least in Manning’s case — meetings with corporate executives to sweeten already lucrative endorsement deals. But if the nutritional killjoys hyping our national obesity "epidemic" are right, the first thing the newly crowned world champs should do is go on a diet.According to the Body Mass Index (BMI) — a rough ratio of weight to height that is the basis for the inflated claim that 65 percent of Americans are overweight — both Super Bowl teams have rosters full of fatties, including Manning and star Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher. At 6 feet 5 inches, weighing in at 230 pounds, Manning has a BMI of 27, officially classifying him as "overweight." Urlacher is in even worse shape: His 6 foot 4 inch, 258-pound frame gives him a BMI of 31, making him technically "obese."Elite athletes like Manning and Urlacher (and Saints rookie sensation Reggie Bush and Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens) get designated as unhealthy because the BMI doesn’t account for muscle mass — a fact that the nation’s obesity doomsayers perpetually fail to mention.
