Headed to the beach? Being thin is definitely a better look. But if bad luck leads you to the surgical suite, then a little extra padding may offer significant health protection.

This was the dramatic conclusion of one study in the Archives of Surgery, which found a 40-percent higher likelihood of dying in the 30 days following an operation for those in the lowest quintile of body weight.

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The study’s authors used a national surgical database that drew from 183 hospitals to see the impact of body-mass index on mortality risk in the month after surgery. Of the nearly 190,000 patients included in the analysis, those with a BMI under 23 (the equivalent of a 5-foot, 9-inch person with a body weight of 155 pounds) had a 40 percent higher risk of post-op death, four weeks out. While the authors caution that underweight patients could have been sicker at the start, it’s also true that being too thin carries its own set of health risks such as compromised immunity, which may complicate recovery.

Only 2 percent of the population is underweight. The two-thirds of the population that is overweight, or even obese, face their own set of surgical challenges.

While being underweight may pose post-surgical problems, it’s worth keeping this risk in perspective: Only 2 percent of the population is underweight. The two-thirds of the population that is overweight, or even obese, face their own set of medical and surgical challenges.

One analysis by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that those obese at the time of surgery were 2.2 times more likely to suffer a hospital infection. Obesity not only makes it more likely you’ll end up in the hospital in the first place, but the extra pounds could hamper the accuracy of important diagnostic scans.

Regardless of weight, eating a diet of plenty of fruit and vegetables will help support a healthy immune function and a timely recovery.

This article was originally created by the Dole Nutrition Institute.