If You’re Fat, So are Your Friends?

July 26, 2007 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Education, Health, Media Bias, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is another reason why people look askance at University “researchers” and wonder why for smart guys they seem so stupid? Reuters passed on some stupid smart guy “research” that posits that if someone is fat, so will their friends and family become fat just the by association with that fat person.

Your best friend can make you fat: researchers

“This is the first (study) to show how obesity spreads through the social network from person to person to person,” James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, who worked on the study, told a telephone briefing.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said their findings show that obesity is contagious — not like a virus is contagious, but in a social sense.

Maybe it’s the “first study” because it is so stupid that no one else would have bothered with it before?

So what is the idiocy they have miraculously “discovered”?

Researchers who have studied “networks” of obesity think so: they found that if someone’s friend becomes obese, that person’s chances of becoming obese increase by more than half.

Siblings and spouses also have an influence, although a reduced one — people whose siblings became obese were themselves 40 percent more likely to grow obese, while people whose spouses became obese were 37 percent more likely to

Imagine that? Fat people make friends with other fat people. Gosh. And fat people have siblings that are fat. Golly gee.

Perhaps it’s because people seek out people who are like themselves to become friends with? Or GENETICS makes them like their own siblings??? Not to mention that we are a fatter society in general, so the chances that one fat person will have a fat friend is… well… nearly 100% these days?

Plus these clueless “researchers” gave a 32 year time span to their study period. I don’t know about you, but I was 175 lbs. in high school and weigh 205 now. That means in 30 some years I gained weight. I am ALSO now in my mid 40’s!! I gained weight. DUH!

What a complete waste of money this stupid “study” is. Just one more example of how our tuition (and government grant cash) is being wasted in Universities all across the country.

(hat tip HotAir.com)
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston