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Friends make you fat, don't bet on it

Study: Obesity spread by social interaction

C. Clark

So you think it's the cookies, chips and bread that make you fat?

Well, maybe. But a major study to be published Thursday by UCSD and Harvard researchers points the finger at an unlikely culprit: the subtle, perhaps even subconscious, influence of spouses, family members and especially close friends.

If those people become overweight, you'll be more likely to think that such a body shape and the lifestyle behaviors causing it are OK.

The result: You are more likely to put on more pounds within a couple of years.

In other words, obesity might spread through “person to person” social interactions, much like the influenza virus spreads through the air.

Likewise, the reverse is true: If your trusted friends become thin, you are more likely to lose weight as well.

“Ours is the first study to show how obesity spreads through a social network,” said Dr. James Fowler, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego and one of the study's two authors.

He said the take-home message is, “If you want to be successful in getting your weight down, get as many of the people to whom you are socially connected involved because there will be a reinforcing effect between your behavior and theirs.”

Among the report's surprise findings is that a friend's weight gain or loss tends to have a bigger influence than family genetics, perhaps because friends can affect each others' food consumption and exercise habits by setting a standard of what is normal.

While weight changes in a person's family members, spouses and siblings also had an impact, the causal links were greatest among people who identified each other as “mutual friends.”

The weight-gain phenomenon also was greater among people of the same gender than those of the opposite sex.

“We were stunned by the size of the effect. We found the effects are stronger between unrelated people than between related people,” Fowler said.

“We know genetics play a big role,” he added, “but here, it seems our social networks may be more influential.”

The study's findings did not surprise Rebekah May, 28, of Del Mar.

When May became friends with workout enthusiast Don Pisarcik, she shed 12 pounds in the first year.

“We've adopted a different lifestyle – going to the gym, eating right and using weights,” May said. “If I had met someone else, it might have been a totally different story.”

For their report, Fowler and Dr. Nicholas Christakis of the Harvard Medical School surveyed more than 12,000 people in Framingham, Mass., from 1971 to 2003. Their work is part of a long-term project examining the relationship between lifestyles and health.

The study is published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. It was funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Several researchers predicted that if the study's findings are replicated, government officials, insurance plans, employers and schools will be motivated to promote group practices leading to healthier lifestyles, such as exercise and diet support groups or programs in workplaces and community settings.

Obesity is known to increase the risk of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, which are expensive to treat.

“This study pokes holes in the 'individual responsibility' argument – that if each person just had enough will power, obesity would vanish,” said Matthew Gillman, director of obesity prevention at the Harvard Medical School. “Rather, we think this shows that obesity occurs through a complex web of environmental, social and personal factors.”

The report said a person's chance of becoming obese increases by 57 percent if he or she has a friend who became obese, 40 percent if a sibling became obese and 37 percent if a spouse became obese.

When two people named each other as friends and one of them became obese, the second person's chance of also gaining a significant amount of weight increased by 171 percent.

Adjacent neighbors who weren't friends had no influence. Perhaps most surprising is that the sway of a friend's weight change persisted even if that person moved hundreds of miles away and was only seen once or twice a year.

The researchers asked participants for names of friends who would always know how to find them so the Framingham project could follow these social networks through time.

As it turned out, many of those named as friends were also participants in the study because Framingham was a relatively small town in the 1970s.

This overlap enabled the researchers to determine that weight influences were closest when two people considered each other friends, as opposed to when only one person named the other as a friend.

Fowler said another remarkable finding is that weight changes weren't limited to two friends.

“To borrow a phrase, we found that there were three 'degrees of separation.' A person's obesity status also affects a friend's friend's friend,” he said.

The discovery prompted Christakis to suggest that public-health programs may get a bigger bang for their buck if they focus on groups and social networks rather than each individual.

“If we spend $1,000 to get one person to lose 20 pounds, that's $50 a pound. But if that weight loss induces a cascade of weight loss in nine other people, that's 200 pounds, or $5 per pound,” Christakis said.

The study does have its drawbacks.

For starters, the participants were almost exclusively white, so weight influences may not be as significant in other races or ethnicities.

Also, the report could not reveal whether those who named each other as mutual friends had early childhood connections that may have influenced their perceptions about appropriate body weight.

In a journal editorial accompanying the study, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi noted that so-called “network science” is an emerging way of looking at not only sociology, but also cell behavior and disease transmission.

“The growing interest in interconnectedness has brought into focus an often ignored issue: networks pervade all aspects of human health,” said Barabasi, who works with the Center for Complex Network Research at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

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Comments:

By Donald Trump

Right Counter Sue !

I can't wait to see how they expand this to every area of peoples lives.

Well...
My Friends are stupid so I'm stupid.
My Friends are Criminals so I'm a Criminal.
My Friends take Drugs so I take Drugs.
My Friends have no Integrity I have no Integrity.
My Friends are child molesters so I'm a child molestor.

I wonder how much money was wasted on this "Study".

No wonder the Government feels free to strip away peoples freedoms everyday. Who would trust citizens lacking the ability to control their own behavior.

By codersue on 07/25/2007

Glory be! I just found out why I'm fat! It's my friends fault! I'm feeling much better now.

By Point_Loman on 07/25/2007

Well, now we know the truth. NBeener is not responsible for his morbid obesity. Its his wife's fault.
Chins up, Beene!

By mochabean on 07/25/2007

I think I'm going to start hanging around Nicole Richie....she looks great, don't you think?

By salsa on 07/25/2007

that's why I had to dump my ex girlfriend.
She was trying to get me out of shape !!!
shame on her !!

By mtnbikechk on 07/25/2007

Birds of a feather, flock together...

By nowburg on 07/25/2007

This is a huge cultural problem in America. Too many people find it acceptable to be overweight, and even try to convince their friends and family of such to rationalize their own situation.

Lets face reality: Fat is disgusting and unhealthy... AND fat is manageable with proper diet and exercise.

By common-sense on 07/25/2007

"No wonder the Government feels free to strip away peoples freedoms everyday.
Who would trust citizens lacking the ability to control their own behavior."
'nuff said.

By MMJ4mil on 07/25/2007

I love being in shape. haha to all you fatties

By Olivenhain on 07/25/2007

I blame society...

By heydud ? on 07/25/2007

Hey has anyone seen the new show on LTC A model life where 6 girls are trying to get modeling jobs. On one segment a former model had a fitness trainer check the girls out an one was told she was not eating enough etc. 5'10" 99lbs. an one girl was the healthy one of the lot [perfect wt. etc.] - guess what when pictures reviewed by ad guys they pick the skinny one who was warned she could die as the best looking one an the one who was the healthy by trainer told to lose weight she look fat. This study is a rush to protect the ad guys. Who Paid for this study. I do agreed peaple do judge all the time on looks etc. as a was to make egos feel better.

By AMB on 07/26/2007

I see dumb people.

By iamanamerican on 07/26/2007

gee, maybe fat people hang around together because skinny people are so rude and obnoxious

By COOT VEAL on 07/26/2007

I likes this story so I kin look at that there pitcher of Rebekah May. Ain't no gals a lookin' like her down ta Sandersville. I kin vouch fer that. Missus Veal wuz "Miss Cotton Pickin' 1949" and I dun snagged her. But I'd rather be snaggin' Rebekah May.
They's ain't no fat Veals =ceptin' Missus Veal. My boy Jesper ain't obese. In fact his teachers made funnys by crowin' that he looks like a thermometer. I dunno what that means. But he ain't skinny 'cuz he hung out with a skinny crowd. He's skinny 'cuz he's my boy and has my jeans.
Look at my base ball cards. I wuz so skinny that ole Al Kaline tole me lots of times, "Hay Cooter, when ya stand sideways ya disappear" and they afeared I wuz gonna go down the drane in the shower when I playd fer them Detroits. That's why I did not shower after them ball games.
Lots of fat gals liked us base ball players. I had my share. I wuz all ways lookin' fer Rebekah Mays and ended up with Miss Cotton Picker of 1949. She's reel fat now even tho' I ain't. My ribs looks like a zylafone even today. So this storey ain't all ways true.

By pinkcat on 07/26/2007

So I'm skinny because my friends are all on coke!

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