Supersize Me—and All My Friends (Scientific American)
Posted by Bobby Kuechenmeister on July 29, 2007 
Comments(2)
Comments(2) Supersized portions and a lack of exercise may not be the only reasons for the spread of obesity in the U.S. A new study finds that having an obese friend makes a person 57 percent more likely to develop a bulging waistline too.
The effect was strongest for close friends but also occurred if friends of friends—or even their friends—gained weight, suggesting that obesity spreads as a kind of social contagion, the same phenomenon popularized in the 2000 book The Tipping Point as an explanation for fads from trucker hats to management philosophies. –JR Minkel
category: Health, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics
Makes sense — when I *really* want to order pizza, or go out for ice-cream, the boyfriend gets dragged along, or whatever friend I’m hanging out with at the moment. 🙂
Hmmm…I watch my weight, but my parents have a nasty habit of adding pounds to me whenever I go home, so maybe my girlfriend should watch out? =)