watch out friends... i may be making you fat!

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_142885.html

July 27, 2007

Getting fat? It may be because of your friends
Obesity is socially contagious and the risk is highest among friends: Study

LOS ANGELES - IF YOUR friends get fat, chances are you will too, even if you live miles away from each other, researchers have found.

The study, published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that obesity is 'socially contagious'.

'We were stunned to find that friends who are miles away have just as much impact on a person's weight status as friends who are right next door,' said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.

Researchers analysed medical records of people in the Framingham Heart Study, which has been following the health of residents of that Boston suburb for more than half a century.

They tracked records for relatives and friends of nearly 12,067 people and found that a person's chances of becoming obese went up 57 per cent if a friend put on weight. If it is a sibling, the chance increased 40 per cent and if it is a spouse, it increased 37 per cent. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled.

After taking into account natural weight gain and other factors, researchers found the greatest influence occurred among friends and not among people sharing the same genes or living in the same household.

On average, the researchers calculated, when an obese person gained 7.7kg, the corresponding friend put on an extra 2.3kg.

Gender also had a strong influence. In same-sex friendships, a person's obesity risk increased by 71 per cent if a friend gained weight.

Dr Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator in the study, says one explanation is that friends affect each others' perception of fatness. When a close friend becomes obese, obesity may not look so bad.
'You change your idea of what is an acceptable body type by looking at the people around you,' Prof Christakis said.

Obesity is a global public health problem. Much of the recent research focus has been on the intense hunt for obesity genes involved in appetite or calorie burning.

The findings could be helpful to treat obese people in groups instead of just the individual, researchers feel.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

chrissy boo made me do this......

Rules of the game:
Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself.
People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
At the end, you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names.
No tagbacks.

1. I broke my right arm in a car accident when I was 17. Lady driver. Explains a lot, doesn't it? :P

2. I used to hate the sight of blood. I'll cup my hand over my wound so that I wouldn't have to look at it and start crying... even if I hadn't seen how bad it is. Now, I like to see blood and gore on screen.

3. I'm really anal about the way I place my pens in my pencil case. They all have to face the same direction. Vic and Jud used to irritate the hell out of me by messing them up. Haha.

4. I love to eat fried silkworms and bamboo worms from Thailand.

5. I am terrified by rats! Once, I was talking to Moo on the phone and he told me there's a rat in front of me. I screamed my head off, forgetting that he's all the way in Sembawang. =D

6. I have been hooked on Yahoo Answers since February this year! And I love taking online personality tests!

7. I may look sweet and nice but I'm a rebel at heart. I like tattoos (especially the Maori ones), piercings, rock music, fast cars... you get the drift.. Although I like Hello Kitty and butterflies as well... :P

8. My best friend in New Zealand and I have an uncanny, almost telepathic relationship. She'll "happen" to be thinking about me when I'm down, and then she'll text me. And she'll pop into my mind and I'll text her and she'll tell me that she's not doing well!

9. I fear public speaking/ presentation/ leading teams. Get the jitters. Sta..sta..stammer.. I'm a follower.. :)

10. I love watching travel shows (Channel 16, Discovery Travel & Living), food shows (Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsey...) and plastic surgery shows (Channel 70, Discovery Home and Health)!

Muahahaha... here comes the arrow.....

Thy holy arrow shooteth at
1. SK
2. Evelyn
3. D
4. Josco
5. Tracy
6. Wei Liang

interesting......

i always thought primary love language is touch.. :)

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Physical Touch.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		12
Physical Touch:		6
Acts of Service:		5
Words of Affirmation:		4
Receiving Gifts:		3

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz