fat friends making you fat?
WHAT WOULD JABBA DO
You all know my position on this issue. Reining in my harshest derision at this time. The original report: New England Journal of Medicine - The Spread of Obesity In a Large Social Network Over 32 Years
"We evaluated a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study. [A study concerning heart disease patients.]"
The conclusion:
"A person's chances of becoming obese increased by 57%...if he or she had a friend who became obese in a given interval. Among pairs of adult siblings, if one sibling became obese, the chance that the other would become obese increased by 40%... If one spouse became obese, the likelihood that the other spouse would become obese increased by 37%...These effects were not seen among neighbors in the immediate geographic location. Persons of the same sex had relatively greater influence on each other than those of the opposite sex."
Mechanisms of disgusting peer influence:
"Having obese social contacts might change a person's tolerance for being obese or might influence his or her adoption of specific behaviors (e.g., smoking, eating, and exercising). In addition...it is plausible that physiological imitation might occur; areas of the brain that correspond to actions such as eating food may be stimulated if these actions are observed in others. Even infectious causes of obesity are conceivable."
Below from the NYTimes summary: Find yourself packing on the pounds? Blame Friends
There is hope:
"The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say."
Nihilistic alternative:
"It may also mean that the way to avoid becoming fat is to avoid having fat friends. "
So folks, the next time you see your friend picking up that bag of chips, tsk tsk and don't reach into it yourself. And get up from in front of the TV, wipe the crumbs off your chest, reach down and tie your sneakers or stick those Velcro straps together, and take a fucking walk.
posted by Sharkmeat at 7/26/2007 11:16:00 AM
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