We Americans like to believe that we have long life expectancies compared to the rest of the world. After all, most of us are sure that we have the best health care in the world and we do not want for food.
Confounding our expectations, it turns out that we don't do very well on life expectancy when compared to other countries - according to our government's own figures, we are only 48th in the world. 47 other countries have longer life expectancies than does the US (including almost all "developed" nations). (Note that we only recently pulled ahead of Cuba, which is now 55th.)
Could our poor showing be because the US has higher rates of overweight and obesity? Possibly, but the best information to date indicates that, surprisingly, "overweight" individuals have longer life expectancy than those at "ideal" weight". Only very obese individuals were found to have decreased life expectancy.
Also, the US has a very low smoking rate compared to the rest of the industrialized world - which should work in our favor.
[1] Flegal KM, et al Excess deaths associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity JAMA. 2005 Apr 20;293(15):1861-7
Infant Mortality: The US vs. The Rest of the World
