A New Study Suggests Your Friend's Habits Can Make You Fat

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 31, 2007 at 8:58 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A local UCSD researcher explains how our social interactions can influence weight gain. We speak to the researcher about why he is shocked by the results, the limitations of his study, and how his re

Tom Fudge: If you have overweight friends, there's a good chance you're overweight too. In fact, if you have a close friend who is obese, you've got a good chance of being obese as well. Maybe there's nothing surprising about any of that. But a recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , shows that the influence of personal relationships on obesity is very dramatic.

he study found that a person's chances of becoming obese rose by 57 percent if a close friend became obese. The study may recommend a whole new strategy in treating obesity. It appears your friends have more to do with you developing a problem than your genes or even your family influence.

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Guest

Dr. James Fowler , associate professor of Political Science at UCSD, and co-author of the study.