Obesity Could Be Contagious, Researchers Find

Note from Connie: Wow! You've got to read this item! You'll get one more reason to choose your friends very wisely: obesity may be catching!  You see, when people pack on pounds, chances are that their friends, siblings and spouse will gain weight, too. So says a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Karen James gives you the scoop.

Researchers studying a densely interconnected social network of over 12,000 people who were part of the Framingham Heart Study found that a person's chance of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese and 37 percent if a spouse became obese.

Researchers Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., of Harvard University, and James H. Fowler, Ph.D., of the University of California San Diego found that the greatest effect was not on relatives or those living in the same household. Instead, it was among friends--even those living apart.

The researchers believe that as people become larger, they become more accepting of larger body size and eventually that sensibility can spread among those around them, according to the MedPage Today article that alerted us to this news.

Admittedly, though, the researchers didn't examine food consumption as a factor in weight gain with the data they had.

Karen James for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog