Fat Friends Are Bad For Your Health

[Gingersnap]

FAT FRIENDS ARE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

Tuesday December 7,2010
By Jo Willey

LOSING weight is simple – just swap all your beer-swilling, pie-munching friends for skinny ones.

Research shows that hanging out with a healthier crowd is more likely to make you drop your bad habits.

A study of 3,610 women aged between 18 and 46 has found that those who move in healthier circles are more likely to eat well and take more exercise.

Professor Kylie Ball, who led the research team, said: “These findings suggest that healthy behaviour may be contagious.”


The researchers tested the extent to which a fashion for healthy behaviour among a person’s friends and family could influence their own lifestyle.

The women who took part in the study were asked to rate how much they agreed with statements such as “I often see other people walking in my neighbourhood” and “Lots of women I know eat fast food often”.

Women who had healthier friends were more likely to eat well and take more exercise.

Professor Ball, from Deakin University in Australia, said: “The importance of social environmental influences on health-promoting behaviours such as physical activity and healthy eating has been increasingly recognised. Ours is one of the first studies to demonstrate the association of both social support and social norms with physical activity and eating behaviours.”

She added: “The potential to modify social norms as an intervention lever for promoting increased engagement in physical activity and healthy eating is worthy of further investigation.”

What? You mean peer pressure exerts an influence on people? Stop the presses!

Of course who you hang out with and what you do influences your eating habits (smoking habits, drinking habits, sexual habits, clothing preferences, entertainment choices, etc., etc.).

Sadly, you can't just dump all your old friends and take up XC skiing in order to lose a lot of weight. If you did that, you would probably drop the effort after a couple of weeks. Why? Because you aren't genuinely interested in XC skiing and you'd miss your old friends.


read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/...#ixzz17XO8xX3d

[noonwitch]

I've found that cooking for other people makes them fatter, so they see me as thinner in the long run.


Just kidding. I actually do cook for others a lot and that has helped me lose weight, because I'm not eating all the food I've cooked myself. And I love cooking.

[Gingersnap]

This study is just confirming that peer pressure is highly important. Where I work, almost no professional people are overweight. Does my field magically attract the thin? Nope, but managers favor normal-weighted people in promotions and everything in the place rewards the physically active. You get special consideration for riding a bike to work. We get discounts for health clubs. A lot of networking goes on among people who ski or raft. Company retreats always have a huge physical component. We have on-site yoga and zumba classes. All company box lunches have a vegan option. It's crazy.

But the peer pressure means that only the clerical staff and a few people who have dead-ended in their careers are overweight.

[RobJohnson]

Now I know why I have no friends. They read the article. :D

[SaintLouieWoman]

This study is just confirming that peer pressure is highly important. Where I work, almost no professional people are overweight. Does my field magically attract the thin? Nope, but managers favor normal-weighted people in promotions and everything in the place rewards the physically active. You get special consideration for riding a bike to work. We get discounts for health clubs. A lot of networking goes on among people who ski or raft. Company retreats always have a huge physical component. We have on-site yoga and zumba classes. All company box lunches have a vegan option. It's crazy.

But the peer pressure means that only the clerical staff and a few people who have dead-ended in their careers are overweight.

Looks like the only people who can be bashed with impunity are Christians and overweight folks. There seem to be a lot of this type artcle posted. Perhaps Colorado is just a more intolerant state. Zumba on.

[noonwitch]

Looks like the only people who can be bashed with impunity are Christians and overweight folks. There seem to be a lot of this type artcle posted. Perhaps Colorado is just a more intolerant state. Zumba on.

I live in one of the fattest states. I can't speak for the entire state, but within metro Detroit, there are parts that are fatter than others. In Warren, I am never the fattest woman at the pool. I never was when I was 70 lbs heavier, either. The same applies in the City of Detroit.

Yet in Royal Oak or Ann Arbor, which are trendier communities, there would probably be people who would snicker-not at me now, but at me a few years ago.

All four communities I mentioned vote overwhelmingly democrat, so it's not a political thing. Yet.

[SaintLouieWoman]

I live in one of the fattest states. I can't speak for the entire state, but within metro Detroit, there are parts that are fatter than others. In Warren, I am never the fattest woman at the pool. I never was when I was 70 lbs heavier, either. The same applies in the City of Detroit.

Yet in Royal Oak or Ann Arbor, which are trendier communities, there would probably be people who would snicker-not at me now, but at me a few years ago.

All four communities I mentioned vote overwhelmingly democrat, so it's not a political thing. Yet.

It's not very Christian (or any other belief system) to snicker at others. Trendy isn't necessarily good. I avoid anything trendy, whether in home decorating, clothes, communities.

I sold to the federal and city governments for years. I liked the clients, as most weren't trendy, were just basic, down to earth people. Maybe it's a Midwest attitude, not sure. When I sold to major corporations, some of the contacts were more brittle, not as real. I had one person with a major corporation say that he never returned my calls, because I was "just a sales rep." The guy was a moron who had to have basic business facts carefully explained to him. I resented the attitude, because I had the same college education that he had. I always wanted to ask his alma mater, because they really didn't do much of an job in his education. Ironically, I wasn't trying to "sell" him anything, just trying to do him a favor by getting a very vexing billing problem solved for him. When he made that remark to me, I never bothered calling him again, figured he could go to hell and solve it himself. :D

[Gingersnap]

Looks like the only people who can be bashed with impunity are Christians and overweight folks. There seem to be a lot of this type artcle posted. Perhaps Colorado is just a more intolerant state. Zumba on.

No, it looks like there are an increasing number of articles, government programs, private workplace mandates, insurance policy restrictions, and public education policies and programs that focus on this issue.

The point of this study was really about lifestyle and peer pressure. Not exactly ground-breaking research but one that was given a pop culture twist by the writer. There are many examples of this exact thing. You won't find a lot of plus sized people who have both a college education and an above average income. You won't find them among people heavily involved with yoga or distance running or hiking. You won't find them among the numerous 'alternative' lifestyles that involve attention to food issues (vegan, instinctive eating, raw foods, macrobiotic, etc.).

The point is that your friends, coworkers, environment, and hobbies exert a powerful influence (good or bad) on health choices and image.

I don't know if Colorado is a more intolerant state but it has one of the highest physical activity levels of any and it's the state with the least obesity. This is probably a result of the weather and recreational opportunities out here coupled with the type of workplace incentives I described.