Posted
7/26/2007 05:23:00 PM
by Douglas
Thanks for giving me fat buddy:
Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers are reporting today. When a person gains weight, close friends tend to gain weight, too.
The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased a person’s chances of becoming obese by 57 percent.
There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends.
First off, duh. When friends have like activities (or lack thereof) and hang out at the same Chinese buffets, it's easy to see how their weight would fluctuate similarly.
More importantly,
this is the kind of thing that the NEJoM is publishing? How's that cancer thing coming along?