Latest weight loss advice
Feeling fat? Forget the diet and dump your tubby friends instead. That's the conclusion of a study reported widely today that looked at the social networks of 12,067 people researchers followed for 32 years. The American research found that obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus.
"People were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased one's chances of becoming obese by 57%," reports the IHT.
"There was no effect when a neighbour gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less of an influence than friends. It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away - the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between mutual close friends. There, if one became obese, the other had a 171% increased chance of becoming obese too.
"The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say, but since most people were gaining, not losing, weight over the 32 years, the result was an obesity epidemic."
The researchers say that they do not want people to drop their fat friends, because friendship is good for overall health. Instead, they suggest, "why not make friends with a thin person, and let the thin person's behavior influence you and your obese friend?"
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