英语四级六级阅读(10)

【今日推荐阅读】

Obesity is contagious - with people who have a higher number of fat friends or relatives at greater risk of becoming obese themselves, new research warns.

Researchers have found a number of ways that fat people could influence their pals' girth. It can be subliminal - where having overweight pals can make people see their weight as "normal" and eat accordingly until they're the same size.

It can also be more direct, with obese people putting pressure on their slimmer friends to eat more and exercise less until they "achieve the same body size". And even being around larger pals can put you at risk of gaining weight yourself, as socializing with them is likely to revolve more around eating or watching TV and less about exercising.

Researchers from Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the US, interviewed 101 women alongside 812 of their closest friends and relatives. By looking at the Body Mass Index of the women and their friends and relatives, they discovered that the fatter a woman's social circle, the more likely she was to be obese herself.

This was because "we learn about acceptable body size from family and friends" according to researchers, with friendships based on eating and engaging in little physical activity more likely to end in obesity.

Despite the results researchers found that most women viewed being fat as a source of shame. Asked whether they would rather be fat or have a range of socially stigmatized conditions, a quarter of women said they'd rather suffer from severe depression than be fat, while more than one in 10 said they'd rather be totally blind than obese.