She (Gina Kolata) also made the claim that the emerging scientific consensus is that being a little (or even a good bit) fat is better than being a little thin, for which she offered only some correlation evidence. All this was on NPR (The Brian Lehrer show) and Brian did not push her on either the analysis or the scientific studies... but when he did do that, I found that she was being sensationalistic and absolutist -- I guess it sells books and makes you look like you found a new "truth".
Her claim(s) itself is not easily falsifiable since it is not well- stated formally. But using the most obvious formalisation would make it possible, I believe, to provide counter-evidence in short order. That said, a more nuanced version of the idea, no longer sensational or novel unfortunately, would not only be substantial but also progressive.
--ravi