almost fifteen percent said that they would rather be blind than obese

Watch out, obesity is contagious!  Professor Alexandra Brewis, from Arizona State University's Center for Global Health who carried out a study claims that obesity spreads not only because groups of people end up getting similar ideas about what is a normal or acceptable body size but also because they tend to mimic each others behaviour which leads to all round weight gain.

Things like going to restaurants often and not getting exercise tend to become the normal behaviour among friends which leads to obesity. For the study just over 100 women living in Arizona were asked questions about body size. They also studied over 800 of these womens family members and friends and asked them similar questions as well as documenting the body mass index (BMI) of all participants.

The study results showed the women were more likely to be obese by about 2? times if they had obese friends and were over 3? times more likely to suffer from obesity if they had close friends who were obese.

Other findings of the study were that 25% of the women said that they would rather suffer from depression then be obese; almost fifteen percent said that they would rather be completely blind and nearly 50 percent said they would give up five years of life to be obese free. Professor Alexandra Brewis said that it was no good shaming individuals into losing weight because of peer pressure and that instead healthy environments should be promoted.

To use this study to your advantage, the best action to take is to start hanging out with your thinner friends. You will find that eating plays a much smaller part in their thoughts and that they are more likely to partake in activities which involve exerting themselves.

If you eat in a restaurant with a skinny friend you will definitely eat less than if you go to that restaurant with a chubby friend. Choosing who you hang out with will have a big positive effect on your environment and the likelihood of you overeating.

This study was published by the American Journal of Public Health.