Obesity spreads like a virus

Over at wired they have reveled that becoming obese spreads like a virus. My musings to date have been on the biochemistry of obesity (here and here). However this study clearly demonstrates that your peer group has a big impact on whether you will become obese. And that obesity spreed the same way a virus spreads, in clusters and from person to person.

If your spouse becomes obese then you have a 37% higher probability of being obese, if your close friends come obese your probability of developing obesity increases a whopping 171%.

Check out the article - it has some wonderful illustrations showing how the epidemic spreeds.

There are many implications of this, including if you want to loose weight make sure you have thin friends!