You are what you eat - not who you meet
From the BBC ...
Teenagers who have overweight friends tend to develop a weight problem themselves, mounting evidence suggests. Latest research from the US found a strong link between teenagers own weight and that of their closest peers. A UK obesity expert said the link is likely to be causal and down to catching bad habits.
The journal Economics and Human Biology work adds weight to the notion of imitative obesity - mimicking of friends who pile on the pounds. It looked at data on nearly 5,000 teenagers, many of whom were later followed up after two-year interval.
From this the researchers found friendships between the adolescents tended to cluster according to weight, meaning overweight children tended to hang out together. When they looked at weight changes over time, they found having a fat friend could lead to weight gain for a child.
The study authors from the University of Hawaii say they cannot tell from their work whether overweight teens influence their friends to become overweight or whether obese adolescents simply choose to flock together. If gaining weight causes one's friends to gain weight, this knowledge will be important for policy makers working on targeted campaigns, says Dr Sally Kwak and her team.
The journal Economics and Human Biology work adds weight to the notion of imitative obesity - mimicking of friends who pile on the pounds. It looked at data on nearly 5,000 teenagers, many of whom were later followed up after two-year interval.
From this the researchers found friendships between the adolescents tended to cluster according to weight, meaning overweight children tended to hang out together. When they looked at weight changes over time, they found having a fat friend could lead to weight gain for a child.
The study authors from the University of Hawaii say they cannot tell from their work whether overweight teens influence their friends to become overweight or whether obese adolescents simply choose to flock together. If gaining weight causes one's friends to gain weight, this knowledge will be important for policy makers working on targeted campaigns, says Dr Sally Kwak and her team.
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