Your friends may be more important than your genes in determining whether you gain weight, according to a "classic" study released today.

The study, which followed a large group of Americans for more than three decades, was the first to demonstrate that obesity—and perhaps other health problems that involve behavior or lifestyle—spreads through social networks.

I totally agree w/ you, ITJock, however some people may not even realize that.

Before this study, I was thinking about all of my friends & their fitness level and ALL OF THEM (gay and straight) are all fit. I really didn't think of it until I sat down and just analyzed them.

What about people who don't have friends?

This is so typical of these types of studies that are palmed off as "science." They are done by people who don't understand cause and effect, and then made worse by media just looking for grabby headlines.

Give up all your fat friends, divorce your fat spouse and abandon your fat children. Real helpful.

The study suggests many of those factors have a role but their influence is amplified through social connections.

The study analyzed social and family connections among 12,067 people from Framingham, Mass., who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003, in the Framingham Heart Study. The study collected data on health, diet, exercise, family ties and, to a limited extent, friendships. Every two to four years, participants had a physical exam.

Researchers looked closely at the influence of gender, smoking, socioeconomic class and geographic distance among participants.

They used body mass index, a ratio of height to weight, to calculate obesity. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.

Researchers found that the influence of friends on weight gain exceeded that of siblings and spouses, and was as powerful as the effect of genetics found in other studies.

Certainly that is one of the more bizarre and useless studies to come out in a while. Eating habits are strongly influenced by our upbringings but binge eating and continued bad habits into adulthood are usually simply about lack of discipline and personal issues. I imagine there's some diet pill company or some pharmaceutical rip off artists behind it - a new pill coming soon geared to stop the bad influence from friends and family.

(These findings) should also have implications for how you choose your friends. You should not be hanging with anybody whose body-mass index is suspect. If your friends are not willing to divide their weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters and share that data with you, they're not your friends.

Look back over their menu choices. If the ratio of chicken wings to celery stalks is more than 3-1, cut them off. Now!

I don't care if she was the maid of honor at your wedding or if he risked his life rushing into a burning building to pull you to safety. If they're really friends, they'll understand.

What about people who don't have friends?

Because it makes no sense. It's passive in its attitude. And frankly, I don't believe it. How's that?

Rather than offering their own personal opinion on the merits, or lack thereof, of this study, someone could do a quick look at some off the peer review and find out what's beeing said. Yah know, see what some other experts think. That or continue being armchair experts. Either one.

I'd do it, but I really can't be bothred. That and I fly to St. Catharines in about 12 hours.