Fat friends make you fathttp://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1012/1012134_fat_friends_make_you_fat.html

HAVING a fat friend hugely increases the chance of you going the same way, a new study says.
Obesity is 'socially contagious', spreading from person to person in a social network, say researchers.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, says that when a person becomes obese, the chances that a friend of theirs will also become obese increases by 57 per cent.
Researchers from Harvard and the University of California found that a fat person's siblings have a 40 per cent increased risk, and their spouse a 37 per cent increased risk.

The researchers analysed data over 32 years for 12,067 adults who underwent repeated medical assessments as part of a heart study.

They were able to map the interconnected social network using information that listed participants' family changes and contact information for their closest friends.

A research spokesman said: "What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size.

"People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads."