Obesity contagious?
Health
Find Yourself Packing It On? Blame Friends
By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 26, 2007
Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers report.
Full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/health/26fat.html?ex=1343188800&en=4d63f886e886f9ee&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
I don't really even know what to say about this study. Except that I think it's crap and people should take more responsibility for themselves. On NPR this morning, there was a woman commenting on this story who said she had gained weight because a coworker would bring in dozens of Krispy Kreme donuts to work every Friday. And, obviously, since the donuts were there, she had to eat not one, but two. Ummm.. unless your coworker is holding a gun to your head and telling you to eat the donuts or die, you don't have to eat the donuts. My boss brings in lots of goodies and I usually ignore them. Just because the food is there, doesn't mean one has to eat it.
Also, I don't care how fat my friends get; obesity will never be more attractive to me. Yuck!
I think this is my favorite line of the article:
"It may also mean that the way to avoid becoming fat is to avoid having fat friends."
Umm.. I'm sorry, I can't be friends with you anymore. You've gained too much weight. You guys better watch out! I think I'm going to implement this!
Look, instead of trying to place blame on why obesity has skyrocketed, why don't researchers just tell people to put down the donut and exercise! Sure, there are some cases where this won't help the person, but I'm willing to bet this will help a LARGE portion of people. Yes, some of it is genetics. But I think a very large portion of the problem is poor diet and lack of exercise.
Find Yourself Packing It On? Blame Friends
By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 26, 2007
Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers report.
Full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/health/26fat.html?ex=1343188800&en=4d63f886e886f9ee&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
I don't really even know what to say about this study. Except that I think it's crap and people should take more responsibility for themselves. On NPR this morning, there was a woman commenting on this story who said she had gained weight because a coworker would bring in dozens of Krispy Kreme donuts to work every Friday. And, obviously, since the donuts were there, she had to eat not one, but two. Ummm.. unless your coworker is holding a gun to your head and telling you to eat the donuts or die, you don't have to eat the donuts. My boss brings in lots of goodies and I usually ignore them. Just because the food is there, doesn't mean one has to eat it.
Also, I don't care how fat my friends get; obesity will never be more attractive to me. Yuck!
I think this is my favorite line of the article:
"It may also mean that the way to avoid becoming fat is to avoid having fat friends."
Umm.. I'm sorry, I can't be friends with you anymore. You've gained too much weight. You guys better watch out! I think I'm going to implement this!
Look, instead of trying to place blame on why obesity has skyrocketed, why don't researchers just tell people to put down the donut and exercise! Sure, there are some cases where this won't help the person, but I'm willing to bet this will help a LARGE portion of people. Yes, some of it is genetics. But I think a very large portion of the problem is poor diet and lack of exercise.