Sharpton's risk of heart disease and diabetes are certainly reduced thanks to his weight loss, but, strangely enough, being fat may have once saved the reverend's life. Back in 1991 he was stabbed in the chest before a march in Bensonhurst, where he was protesting the death of a black teenager at the hands of a white mob. The knife almost punctured a lung, and it might have killed him if not for all the body fat.