Let's call this one the friend's flu. According to a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine (a magazine written by smart doctors) obesity is a contagion you catch from your friends.
This totally makes sense to me. Remember how your mother told you to stay away from "so and so" because she or he was a bad influence. Turns out pothead Dan was not the only problem, skinny people make their friends skinny and fat people can turn their friends fat. As a 2007 Time Magazine article stated "instead of you choosing your friend with six pack abs, you chose a friend with a six pack of beer."
Pictures of Elvis Presley show that as he got fatter and fatter, everyone in the pictures around him got fatter too. Talk about the Memphis Mafia emulating the boss.
The co-author of the study, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of the Harvard Medical School, claims the obesity affliction is not just people with the same habits befriending one another. "It's not that obese or non obese people simply find other similar people to hang out with."
But common sense says people with similar vices tend to come together. Food and drink is part of hanging out. We drink together at the bar, eat popcorn together at the movie, gossip over pizza, celebrate anniversaries and birthdays over three course dinners. Eating and friendship go hand in hand.
This is not to say you need to get new friends, however you should be aware that if spend a lot of time with overweight buddies, you will unconsciously eat more than if you hang out with fit and trim friends. My conclusion is that if you are dieting, you should seek new activities with your chubby friends like walking or shopping rather then the usual fast food hangouts, bars and eating establishments. And if your fat friends don't get it, find people who are health conscious or are trying to lose weight like yourself.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1649321,00.html#ixzz0gTVSrdYU or leave a comment below. What do you think?
This totally makes sense to me. Remember how your mother told you to stay away from "so and so" because she or he was a bad influence. Turns out pothead Dan was not the only problem, skinny people make their friends skinny and fat people can turn their friends fat. As a 2007 Time Magazine article stated "instead of you choosing your friend with six pack abs, you chose a friend with a six pack of beer."
Pictures of Elvis Presley show that as he got fatter and fatter, everyone in the pictures around him got fatter too. Talk about the Memphis Mafia emulating the boss.
The co-author of the study, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of the Harvard Medical School, claims the obesity affliction is not just people with the same habits befriending one another. "It's not that obese or non obese people simply find other similar people to hang out with."
But common sense says people with similar vices tend to come together. Food and drink is part of hanging out. We drink together at the bar, eat popcorn together at the movie, gossip over pizza, celebrate anniversaries and birthdays over three course dinners. Eating and friendship go hand in hand.
This is not to say you need to get new friends, however you should be aware that if spend a lot of time with overweight buddies, you will unconsciously eat more than if you hang out with fit and trim friends. My conclusion is that if you are dieting, you should seek new activities with your chubby friends like walking or shopping rather then the usual fast food hangouts, bars and eating establishments. And if your fat friends don't get it, find people who are health conscious or are trying to lose weight like yourself.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1649321,00.html#ixzz0gTVSrdYU or leave a comment below. What do you think?
Labels:
Fat friends,
gaining weight.
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1 comments:
I don't think that is true. My friends are all skinny and are encouraging me and helping me out.