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Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
http://www.cycling-inform.com/articles/85/1/Are-Your-Friends-Making-You-Fat/Page1.html
Bean Jones

 
By Bean Jones
Published on 11-Jun-08
 
A lot of people were surprised over the findings of the obesity study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. It alleged that being fat is a "socially contagious" disease.

The co-author of the study, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of the Harvard Medical School, explained that a person was 37 percent more likely to become obese if he or she had a fat spouse, 40 percent more likely to get hefty if he or she had overweight siblings, and 57 percent more likely to turn tubby if he or she had chubby friends. This is supposedly because we're likely to eat what our loved ones are eating - even if they're grabbing unhealthy grub.

A lot of people were surprised over the findings of the obesity study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. It alleged that being fat is a "socially contagious" disease.

The co-author of the study, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of the Harvard Medical School, explained that a person was 37 percent more likely to become obese if he or she had a fat spouse, 40 percent more likely to get hefty if he or she had overweight siblings, and 57 percent more likely to turn tubby if he or she had chubby friends. This is supposedly because we're likely to eat what our loved ones are eating - even if they're grabbing unhealthy grub.

But who's to say that you can't make your own decisions? Besides, it's not just your hefty friends who should be tagged as potential fitness dampers. Heck, you regular-sized friends could cause you to binge just as much.

Thus, I was happy to find out that I wasn't the only one who had some reservations about the study's findings. Dr. Neil Izenberg, founder and editor-in-chief of KidsHealth.org, said the findings might be taken the wrong way by a lot of people. He was worried that kids would resort to ostracizing peers with weight problems.

Izenberg pointed out: "The positive impact of this research might be that more people will see eating and activity patterns as being strongly influenced by friends and family. It could be negative though, if you limit your friends based on how they look."

According to Izenberg, you just have to:

1. Pay more attention to how you make your choices about what you consume.

2. Be more conscious of how active you are.

By Bean Jones.

So, if you have a chubby friend, don't make him or her the scapegoat for your weaknesses. Instead, convince him or her to get fit with you. You could take up our remote coaching program together. Also, tell your pal that it's not his or her size that concerns you. It's his or her health that matters.

Cycling-Inform endorses the fight against childhood obesity.