Drop your fat friends like a potato!

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

New England Journal of Medicine

 

Your Fat Friends are Making You Fat

By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff

 

A study released today suggests that obesity spreads through social connections, particularly via close friendships.

 

This doesn’t replace the effects of genetics, failing to exercise or supersizing food. But researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine say it provides a possible explanation for the rapid increase in obesity over the last few decades. Nationally surveys show that nearly one-third of US adults are now obese.

 

The condition appears to spread though what researchers are calling “social contagion,” a tendency of people who become obese to influence the behavior of others and to convey -- perhaps subliminally -- the message that being overweight is okay.

 

"Obesity is not just an individual problem, but a collective problem," said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the report. To slow the epidemic, he said, "treating people in groups may be more effective than treating them individually."

 

Studying more than 12,000 people linked to a long-running study of heart disease based in Framingham, the researchers found that an individual's chances of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if someone they consider a friend grew obese.

 

If the friendship was close and mutual and one person became obese, the other's risk soared by 171 percent. The study found similar, but smaller influences between siblings and spouses, but neighbors who aren't friends had no effect.

 

Surprisingly, obesity seemed to spread even if friends were geographically distant.

 

"We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person's weight as those who are geographically close," said James Fowler, the paper's other author, who is an associate professor of political science at the University of California San Diego. This led researchers to suggest that the effect wasn't only due to sharing behaviors -- such as eating together -- but to sharing ideas about what constitutes an appropriate weight.

 

Because the study looked at relationships over time, the researchers were able to exclude cases in which obese people chose overweight friends, and therefore were able to make a stronger case for a causal effect.

 

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/2007/07/friendships_may.html?p1=MEWell_Pos2

[Bess.]

It would probably have the opposite effect. Seeing your friend getting fatter and fatter, day by day, would make me want to exercise that much more to look nothing like them. It’s like having a huge a magnified mirror infront of you…”hey…if you eat like them…you end up looking like that…and nobody wants to look like that.

 

Besides fat people want everyone to be just like them, to not feel that apparent …they are always inviting their poor friends to eat out a lot and watch a lot of movies in the theater where they continue to eat more.

Hence, if your friend is fat …either dump them or buy them a gym membership…for both your sakes.

[Tahliil]

lol..I could only see a lawsuit in the works..Should Big Boned Tanisha lose her job because she is a bad fatty influence on her co-workers?

 

I would say those knuckleheads in the SOL's political section are making us less sharp too...what are we to do about them???

[Jacaylbaro]

I can never be a friend to a FAT person ,,,,, i just feel disgusted

[Faheema.]

^ Fat people are human too and I doubt they would want your so called friendship either.

[Jacaylbaro]

i didn't say they are not human ,,,,,

[Faheema.]

Oo maxaad u kala reebtay markaad tiri... I quote"i just feel disgusted" Why? ma fat'kooday ku mar marinaayaan.

[Jacaylbaro]

don't worry ,,, you not that fat

 

 

anigaa kaa sii buuran weliba ,,,, look at me

[Faheema.]

Taa la iskuma hayo, caluushan kuusana iska rid baan ku odhan lahaa oo garoonkii timacade laba jeer kusoo yara wareeg

 

In all seriousness... Dadka buuran maxaa soomalida ku diray?

[Jacaylbaro]

coz dadka casrigani way dhuuban yihiin soomaaliduna wixii laga baxay iyo baruurtii bay weli dabada haystaan ,,,,

 

 

loooooooooool@garoonkii timacadde ,,, runtii waaban ku wareegaa kaas inkastoo uu yar yahay ,,,, caloosha inaan iska gooyo mooyaane si kele ma jirto

[rudy-Diiriye]

i did! i dont hang around with xalimoos no more! ethio gals look mighty fine and no drama...loool.

[Nephissa]

If hanging around with fat friends makes one fat, how about if my ugly friends hang around me? Will they automatically get better looking?

[Ibtisam]

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: This superficial attitude is getting worse by the minute. Since when did we judge our friends by their weight. Aacudubilah, so what happens when you skinny best friend becomes fat, you self obsessed society.

 

Jac: from the pictures I have seen of you, I would not put you in the skinny category, in fact i say give it a couple more years (and muqamaad, hilib and bariis), and waad kaal teegi, so don't be too disgusted dear.

[Aaliyyah]

^^^looks like Jacaylbaro has been exposed

[N.O.R.F]

caluushan kuusana iska rid baan ku odhan lahaa oo garoonkii timacade laba jeer kusoo yara wareeg

 

JB, stop using subag as butter/magerine saxib, hilib geelkana iska yaree