Weighty thought: Friends' obesity can be contagious, study says

Left Sock wrote:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...NATIONWORLD/70
7260478/-1/LOCAL17

Watch out if your best friend gets pudgy.

A new study suggests obesity can spread like an infectious disease and
that your odds of becoming obese are greater if your friends and family
put on weight.

By studying a social network of 12,067 people in a Boston suburb who have
been closely tracked for the past three decades, researchers found that
when one person became fat, those close to them gained, too.

The strongest influence was seen among friends no matter where they lived.
A person's chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend became
obese. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled. Among
siblings, the risk of obesity increased by 40 percent and 37 percent among
spouses.


Obesity is a global public health problem. About 1.5 billion adults
worldwide are overweight, including more than 400 million who are obese.
Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 27.8 percent of Hoosiers
were obese in 2006, compared to 19.9 percent in 1998.

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Simple. If your friends are hogs, dump 'em. They ain't helping you.


Obesity is also tied to socio-economic status. I wonder if there is
positive feedback loop...especially if you don't start out obese.

In article , "Richard (the
original)" wrote:



Obesity is also tied to socio-economic status. I wonder if there is
positive feedback loop...especially if you don't start out obese.

Interestingly, overweight girls for example are less likely to go to
college, which would support a feedback loop that sustains the socio
economic status.

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Will @ www.BrinkZone.com

"It twas ever thus! " - Mr Natural