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obesity

Obesity Spreads Through Social Ties

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Take a good look around you – at your family and friends.  Do the bulk of them seem to be overflowing their chairs?

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 2007;357:370-9)  seems to indicate that if you’re struggling with your weight, there is a good chance that your friends and family are, too.

Using data collected over 22 years from a “densely interconnected social network” of 12,067 people who took part in the Framingham Heart Study, the researchers found identifiable clusters of obese people, determined by a body mass index ≥30, present in the study’s network at all times.  The clusters and the risk of obesity extended to three degrees of separation.

Here’s what they found:

  • A person’s chance of becoming obese increases by 57% if he or she has a friend who becomes obese. In a mutual friendship, the person’s risk of obesity increases by 171% if the friend becomes obese.
  • Among pairs of adult siblings, if one sibling becomes obese the chance that the other becoming obese increases by 40%.  This is more prevalent among siblings of the same sex (55%) than among siblings of the opposite sex (27%).  Among brothers, the chance of becoming obese increases by 44% if a brother becomes obese, and among sisters there’s a 67% increased risk if a sister becomes obese. Obesity in a sibling of the opposite sex doesn’t seem to affect the obesity risk of the other one.
  • Among married couples, when one spouse is obese the other is 37% more likely to become obese. Husbands and wives appear to affect each other similarly (44% and 37%, respectively).
  • Neighbors in the immediate geographic location don’t seem to have an effect on a person’s obesity.
  • Pairs of friends and siblings of the same sex seem to have more influence on the weight gain of each other than pairs of friends and siblings of the opposite sex. In same sex friendships, the probability of obesity in one person increases by 71% if the friend becomes obese.  For friends of the opposite sex there’s no significant association.  In same sex friendships, a man has a 100% increased chance of becoming obese if his male friend becomes obese.  For female friends, the spread of obesity is a non-statistically significant 38%.

As the researchers conclude, “obesity appears to spread through social ties.” Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Moms: Here’s Another Responsibility To Shoulder

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I’m a Mom, too, and I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel as though I carry both the blame and responsibility for just about everything.

Mom’s Role in Preventing Obesity

Well, here’s one more thing.  A recent online survey of 1,037 women, 18 and older, by HealthyWomen, an independent online health information source for women, determined that most women underestimate their role in preventing obesity in their children.

87% of the women surveyed believe that a parent’s obesity can influence a child’s risk of becoming obese, but only 28% of women surveyed assigned the responsibility to themselves.

Research has shown that mothers have a greater effect on their child’s weight  than fathers.
 Only 11% of the surveyed women knew that the risk of a child becoming obese more than doubled if the mother is obese during her first trimester of pregnancy.

It Can Be Tough To Get Kids To Eat Produce

Another study conducted by Working Mother magazine and the Dole Food Company found that 56% of moms say that getting kids to eat fruit and vegetables is either not easy or impossible. Based on my own experience with my sons, I totally agree.

How do you encourage better eating habits in your kids? The Dole study found that persistence, convenience, and creativity are key. Over half of the surveyed moms said that repeated attempts to serve certain foods is the best way to get their kids to eat produce.

Role Models And Gatekeepers

Mothers are role models and are commonly the main food gatekeepers for their families.  By taking charge of their eating and activity behavior during pregnancy and afterwards they have a real opportunity to influence their families’ health.  Kids mimic what their parents do and both moms and dads can demonstrate healthy eating habits and expose their kids to nutritious foods. When parents make good choices they are modeling that good behavior for their children.

Rx: Apples And Some Broccoli

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A sample prescription

A Prescription For Veggies?

Yea for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the docs at three medical centers who are writing prescriptions for produce for families with weight problems.

Families with low incomes get coupons for produce that they can redeem at local farmers’ markets. The value of a coupon is $1 per person per day. It seems like a small amount, but with the coupons a family of four can get $120 of fresh produce  a month.

What’s The Rationale?

This objective is to get kids to increase their fruit and veggies by one serving a day.  It is also seen as a opportunity to introduce the children, who have a limited range of exposure, to real food.  The coupon is somewhat symbolic – the $1 coupon competes with the 99 cent fast food meals so familiar to these kids.

Obesity Has Tripled

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years.   Sedentary lifestyles and limited access to fresh, healthy food are seen as reasons for this rapid increase. Along with handing out the coupons, the doctors will follow the families receiving the coupons to determine how their eating patterns are affected.  They will also monitor health parameters like weight and body mass index (BMI).

The hope is, too, that the families become invested in good nutritional practices by hanging out with both the farmers and the consumers at the farmers’ market – and that they then develop a preference for shopping at these types of markets rather than fast food restaurants, supermarkets, big box and convenience stores.

Will It Help Farmers’ Markets, Too?

It may also help the farmers’ markets compete with the fast food vendors who entice kids and families with cheap calories and cheap meals.

The number of farmers’ markets has dramatically increased: from 1,755 in 1994 to more than 5,200.  Although US farmers’ markets generate over $1 billion in annual sales, they are low on the totem pole compared to the fast food industry which brought in over $22.79 billion in 2008.

Healthy Eating Patterns And Lifestyles

As the mayor of Boston said, “When I go to work in the morning, I see kids standing at the bus stop eating chips and drinking a soda.  I hope this will help them change their eating habits and lead to a healthier lifestyle.”