BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
Avoid cake, ice cream, double barbecue bacon cheeseburgers and overweight people if you are trying to lose weight. Because shedding pounds includes shedding friends, according to a federally funded study, “The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years,” published July 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Our study suggests that obesity may spread in social networks in a quantifiable and discernable pattern that depends on the nature of social ties,” according to the article.
Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler evaluated 12,067 people over a period of 32 years, examining different aspects of the spread of obesity.
The results: the study showed that “the closeness of friendship is relevant to the spread of obesity.Persons in closer mutual friendships have more of an effect on each other than persons in other types of friendships.”
A person’s chance of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese during the time. For same-sex friendships, the probability of the skinny person becoming obese because the friend was, increased by 71 percent. As for friends of the opposite sex, no significant association was recorded.
Also, among married people, when a spouse became obese the other was 37 percent more likely to become obese as well. There are some unanswered questions to this study, including how much time one must spend with another to gain weight. The article only said that the people were observed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003.
Yes it is true. If you have friends who tend to gain weight or are obese, it is possible that you will be more inclined to imitate their eating habits and your general perception of the social norms regarding the acceptability of obesity will change. Conversely, if your family or friends like to workout everyday and are super healthy, you will most likely be joining them in their habits, or at least want to avoid being the outcast. It’s as simple as that.
While a lot of the information seems to be quite logical, describing obesity as contagious and comparing it to an infectious disease is somewhat of a cop out. Do you drink because your friends and family do? Do you smoke because your friends and family do? What about drugs? I hope not.
Maybe this research should have never been done; now obese people have another excuse: “My friends made me fat.”
There is a genetic component to weight, and poor diet and lack of exercise also play a significant role, and what you eat, or don’t eat, is a personal choice. Nowadays, people spend more time in front of the television or computers and less time exercising. We drive everywhere instead of deciding to walk or ride bikes. More kids play video games than active games like soccer or football. People also live busier lives, meaning they have less time to cook healthy meals for themselves and their kids. Therefore, we eat more-on the-go meals.
Now that the results are in, what should be done? Is there going to be a contest between vanity and friendship? Do scientists really expect people to drop their friends and family because they are too fat?
“The spread of obesity in social networks appears to be a factor in the obesity epidemic. Yet the relevance of social influence also suggests that it may be possible to harness this same force to slow the spread of obesity,” said the article, in the conclusion.
But America is already doing this. I can’t tell you how many diet books, exercise films, and health programs there are. It all comes down to a personal choice, and other people can only help so much.
“The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years” said that 66 percent of adults are overweight. So maybe this study just seems to fit because everywhere you look someone is fat. But everyone has a friend that is fat, and not everyone is fat. Correlation is not the same as causation.
Something does need to be done about obesity in America, but how does this new study help? It doesn’t…
09-20-2007