photo via Flickr’s ~~JC~~A major American longitudinal study of 17,000 female nurses with an average of 50 has determined that being fat in middle age often slashes women’s chances of living to age 70 in good health, when compared to thin women.

Researchers defined “healthy survival” as not only being free of chronic disease, but having enough mental and physical ability to perform daily tasks like grocery shopping, vacuuming or walking up a flight of stairs.