Birds of a Heavier Feather Flock Together

Think your friends don't profoundly affect your behavior? Think again.

A study released through the New England Journal of Medicine mentions that friends of obese people have a 57% chance of gaining weight themselves. This is a bigger effect than even siblings or spouses.

The relationship was strongest between same sex friends. The hypothesis being that if my friends gain weight, it's accepted that I can gain weight too (kind of like the "broken windows" and "litter" effect of calories). Of course, on a positive note, the opposite effect is just as strong too (my friends lose weight, I better lose it too).

The study was conducted over 25 years and across 12,000 people - so this is no blip on the radar, proving once again that your peer network has more influence over what you do than celebrity culture, religious institutions and traditional advertising and journalism.

With the issue being a particularly acute North American social and health phenomenon (33% of people are considered obese and 56% are considered overweight with both figures climbing), how can a peer network be used to combat this problem?

The Running Room, Weight Watchers and Curves have all tapped into this effect by building offline communities of support in bringing about better health and well-being.  Perhaps it's time, government and health organizations threw its own weight behind a word of mouth, peer-based initiative to take fatty calories out of our nation's peer network's diets.