Written by Sapna Mhatre
Friday, 25 July 2008
FRIDAY, July 25, (News Locale) - The adage "You are known by the company you keep" seems to apply to obesity and overweight as well. Researchers have found that people who have fat friends are more likely to put ion some unwanted pounds as compared to people who have leaner friends.
The study by researchers from the University of Warwick, Dartmouth College, and the University of Leuven analyzed data on 27,000 people from across Europe. The findings suggest if you have overweight friends it is acceptable if you are fat as well.
"Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon not a physiological one," said co-researcher Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick.
The researchers feel people are subconsciously influenced by the weight of people around them. In what they called "imitative obesity," the researchers said hefty people tended to have heavier friends as compared to people having normal weight.
The findings of this international study are due to be presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Obesity is a dangerous condition which is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese populations. The World Health Organization has declared obesity as a global epidemic having major health implications in 1997. It estimated that some 2 billion people worldwide are obese or overweight.
If the above study is true, then consumers may derive some benefit by keeping company with slim friends!
Showing posts with label fatty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fatty. Show all posts
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
'Feeling fat' worse than actually being fat
Tuesday, 24 June , 2008, 10:23
London: Adolescents who think they are too fat seem to be worse off than their counterparts who are really obese, according to an extensive survey.
The Robert Koch Institute in Germany surveyed nearly 7,000 boys and girls between 11 and 17. They were asked about self-assessment, ranging from "far too thin" to "far too fat.”
For more news, analysis | For more Science and Medicine news
The survey, published in the German journal Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, established that about three quarters of adolescents were of normal weight. Yet, 55 percent of girls and under 36 percent of boys thought they were "too fat".
Only about 18 percent of adolescents were actually overweight, while 7-8 percent were underweight.
The quality of life is lower in obese adolescents. However, this correlates to a large extent with self-evaluation. If adolescents think they are "far too fat", they forfeit a lot of their quality of life, whatever their actual weight.
This is particularly marked with girls. On the other hand, if they consider their weight "just right", their quality of life is the same as if they were of normal weight, even if this is not true.
The proportion of adolescents who think they are overweight has been increasing more rapidly in recent years than the proportion of those who really are overweight.
In an accompanying editorial, lead researcher Johannes Hebebrand points out that adolescents are exposed to considerable social pressure to be thin.
He said it was remarkable that as many as 40 percent of the subjects thought that their weight was right, in spite of the ideal of slimness and the stigma of being overweight.
London: Adolescents who think they are too fat seem to be worse off than their counterparts who are really obese, according to an extensive survey.
The Robert Koch Institute in Germany surveyed nearly 7,000 boys and girls between 11 and 17. They were asked about self-assessment, ranging from "far too thin" to "far too fat.”
For more news, analysis | For more Science and Medicine news
The survey, published in the German journal Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, established that about three quarters of adolescents were of normal weight. Yet, 55 percent of girls and under 36 percent of boys thought they were "too fat".
Only about 18 percent of adolescents were actually overweight, while 7-8 percent were underweight.
The quality of life is lower in obese adolescents. However, this correlates to a large extent with self-evaluation. If adolescents think they are "far too fat", they forfeit a lot of their quality of life, whatever their actual weight.
This is particularly marked with girls. On the other hand, if they consider their weight "just right", their quality of life is the same as if they were of normal weight, even if this is not true.
The proportion of adolescents who think they are overweight has been increasing more rapidly in recent years than the proportion of those who really are overweight.
In an accompanying editorial, lead researcher Johannes Hebebrand points out that adolescents are exposed to considerable social pressure to be thin.
He said it was remarkable that as many as 40 percent of the subjects thought that their weight was right, in spite of the ideal of slimness and the stigma of being overweight.
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