The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention apologized on June 2nd for confusion generated by a controversial report suggesting that being overweight may not be so bad, and reiterated that obesity is a major public health threat in the United States.

"It is not OK to be overweight. People need to be fit, they need to have a healthy diet, they need to exercise," CDC chief Julie Gerberding told a new conference in Atlanta.

"Obesity and overweight ... have many adverse consequences," she said, including increased risk of heart disease, some cancers,and diabetes.

A furor arose with the release in April of an obesity study, led by Katherine Flegal of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, suggesting that people who are overweight, but not obese, have a lower death rate than people of normal weight.

The conclusion raised concerns among some health officials that overweight people would ignore messages to lose weight.

Gerberding tried to counter such criticism, saying that obesity's link to major, costly illnesses nevertheless makes it a "serious epidemic" deserving even greater public attention.

"We need to be absolutely, explicitly clear about one thing: Obesity and overweight are critically important health threats in this country," she said.

Other sources: CDC